Gavin Harding: UK's first mayor with a learning disability appointed in Selby
“I had to keep pinching myself saying ‘Is this real?’” he said
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Your support makes all the difference.A council in north Yorkshire has made history by appointing the UK’s first mayor with a learning disability.
Gavin Harding, 39, has risen from the position of deputy mayor to become the town’s mayor, as he starts his second term as a Labour town councillor for Selby Northward.
The local politician was nominated for the position by a fellow councillor, and was later approved as mayor by the body as a whole.
Mr Harding told The Independent that it is a “great honour” to be mayor of Selby.
“I had to keep pinching myself saying ‘Is this real?’” he said.
His role will see him representing and working for local residents, chairing town council meetings, and attending local events.
Describing Selby as "a great community [with] great people in it” he said he wanted to use his position as council chair to “make sure […] that we act in the best interests of the public as much as we can and serve the community".
Mr Harding said he will use his time as mayor to boost retail, and continue campaigning for better policing following cuts to services.
The mayor has seen attitudes to learning difficulties transform over his lifetime, as he was one of the first pupils in the UK to use a Special Educational Needs unit at a secondary school.
Mr Harding, who has a form of cerebral palsy, added that if someone had told him as a schoolboy that he'd be mayor "I would have laughed it off as joke and [said] it would be totally impossible for someone with a mild learning disability become mayor."
During his political career, Mr Harding has worked with the Care Quality Commission, and co-charied the Winterbourne View transforming care, according to The Guardian.
In June 2014 he was awarded an MBE for his work representing people with learning disabilities.
Mr Harding has said the residents of Selby have congratulated him, but said some people have made “cruel comments” in other parts of the country.
“That does not bother me because it's their view," he said, adding that such attitudes proved that some people have "not moved into this century because I was elected in election by people in my ward.”
Encouraging young people with learning disabilities to pursue their dreams, he said his appointment showed "that [people] can achieve things that people in life say are unachievable, don't let people put you down.”
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