SEVEN Hampshire mayors completed a terrifying 100-metre charity abseil down a landmark building.

The mayor of Southampton, Cllr Cathie McEwing; mayor of Eastleigh, Cllr Des Scott; mayor of Winchester, Cllr Jane Rutter; and mayor of Gosport Cllr Lynn Hook joined the civic heads of Havant, East Hampshire and Portsmouth for the nerve-racking drop from the Emirates Spinnaker Tower, at Gunwharf Quays.

The charity challenge had to be postponed from a week earlier due to poor weather conditions.

Mayor of Southampton, Cllr McEwing, said: “Abseiling down the Spinnaker Tower has to be one of the scariest things I’ve ever done.

“Even though we were in safe hands and were given full safety training it was still a truly frightening experience. Taking that first step over the edge was the worst part, and although the abseil only lasted a few minutes, it felt like hours.”

Cllr McEwing said the abseil raised £550 which will be added to all of the other funds that have been raised throughout the year and distributed equally between the charities at the end of her term of office. The charities that the mayor chose to support were Two Saints, The Wayne Howard Trust and the St Mary’s Titanic Window Fund.

Gosport’s Mayor, Lynn Hook, said: “It was exciting but terrifying at the same time”.

Cllr Hook raised more than £1,500 for her charities, Kitbags and Berets, Marvels and Meltdowns and Gosport Street Pastors.

The Mayor of Winchester, Cllr Jane Rutter, took the abseil in her stride as days before she had completed a wing-walk.

Of the abseil, Cllr Rutter said: “It was great fun. I really enjoyed it. I was busy being instructed and made to feel completely at ease by the instructors. I looked around a bit but made sure not to look down.”

Cllr Rutter raised just over £2,000 for two national charities: Combat Stress and Music for All, and three local charities Winchester Youth Counselling, Home Start and Street Reach.

The Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, David Fuller, who went down first, said it was “probably the most terrifying experience that I’ve had, I was so pleased when my feet finally touched the ground”.