Bath Chronicle editor David Gledhill is celebrating 10 years at the helm of the newspaper.

And to mark the anniversary a charity dinner party has been held in his honour, which raised almost £16,000 for four local causes.

More than 200 people attended the event in the city’s Assembly Rooms, including writer Bel Mooney, actor Richard Le Parmentier, former Ultravox frontman Midge Ure and singer Joan Davis.

An auction helped raise cash – which smashed the original target of £10,000 – with the chance to fly in a helicopter and a balloon going under the hammer.

David (pictured) said: “It was a lot more fun than these events are normally! There are a lot of black tie events in this town and I was determined not to have another.”

Reflecting on his decade in charge, David said: “There are so many memories. It’s staggering what you remember and believe it or not after a while it all starts to touch you.

“I’ve got the best job in Bath.”

Editor David with his wife Carole Bond

He said that two of the most difficult stories from his reign so far were the disappearance of Melanie Hall from a Bath nightclub in 1996, and the kidnapping of two Bath residents who were held for 447 days by Chechen rebels in 1997.

David said: “We were actually with the mother of one of those kidnapped when she finally rang home after being freed.

“If a picture can tell a thousand words, then we had several thousand on our front page that day.”

David began his career on the Spenborough Guardian before spells at the Dewsbury Reporter, Bradford Telegraph & Argus and Swindon Evening Advertiser.

The Chronicle is the first paper David has edited, and he arrived at a time when it was losing money and teetering on the brink of becoming a weekly publication.

He said: “The paper had lost touch with its readers and customers. It really had lost its way and had no idea what its readers wanted.

“It was a long, hard slog to turn it around but it was worth every minute of it. I like to think it was down to everyone who put up a great fight to keep it as a daily paper.”

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