I have started my new venture as a local town Councillor.
It’s been exciting and I started by meeting all my colleagues. We have elected positions within the Council and chosen our working groups.
I have now got my very own name badge, councillor email and my own table place marker with Cllr Susan Mead on. I have attended training at the Town Hall.
I went to see the Mayor being elected and watched my other party member Cllr Kay Wesley be voted in as Deputy Mayor and we have made women’s history by having two WEP members in Council. You can read Kay’s blog on this website too.
It was nice to see Cllr Rob Moreton become mayor as we have worked together for years on the estate as volunteers. It was a brilliant night with lots to celebrate.
I am looking forward to getting started with the new Council.
I would love to hear from you. What should I and the Council be prioritising? Do you have ideas for how we can improve things in Congleton?
Please get in touch with me and let me know your thoughts:
Email cllrsusan.mead@congleton-tc.gov.uk
Call or text 07875 542974
Or you can come to one of our surgeries – the next one is on Monday 3rd July on Zoom at 6pm.
School parking
My first project as a Councillor is that by some local residents who are concerned about the parking around a local school. I have actioned a task and I’ve been working closely with the school, residents and local authority to help provide some solutions.
I have had some new posters designed to help raise awareness about considerate parking.
Pride
I attended the Pride sponsorship evening and offered my support. It was a lovely evening that was held at the Lion and Swan Hotel. It was nice to meet the members of Pride and find out about the upcoming events and also to see some of the past events have been a very big success. I look forward to helping and supporting with Congleton Pride as much as I can.
Litter pick
I have been out in town, taking part in the Congleton Town Tidy up. I took a litter picker and rubbish bag and went around town collecting rubbish. Whilst I was out and about, I met lots of local residents who thanked me for all my hard work.
Bromley Bloomers
It’s been an exciting few weeks and we have started to build our community garden on Hillary Ave with the Bromley Bloomers. We had a kind donation from Kanga Health who have helped us to get the money to pay Streetscape to dig the land and get rid of the rubble and fill a skip.
Now that the land is prepared properly the Bell Group and Plus Dane housing have funded raised planters so the elderly can come and help us maintain the garden at comfortable height.
The planters have been built training apprentices training in woodwork and painting.
The planters have been painted in bright colours to celebrate Pride. Streetscape have helped us to lay paths and in the future trees for Congleton will help us to put in surrounding hedges for the area.
We have received a grant from Congleton Partnership for soil and bark. Streetscape and our volunteers have helped us to acquire some plants, consisting of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and pollinators to fill our garden with. We are also going to create a wildflower area. The garden will be able to provide local residents with free food and offer an area where people can enjoy gardening together as a group.
We had an open day and lots of the residents from Bromley farm came along to our big plant up. It was a really well attended day and the Mayor opened the garden for us. Everyone voted on names and we called it The Friendship Garden. The children had so much fun and helped to build a future for Bromley farm.
Since the big plant up day we have had some lovely days at the allotment and the children have had some of the best days ever. It’s been a really rewarding project and we have had so many compliments from people who are keen to get involved.
The community has really come together from this is reflected in how good the garden looks.
Walkabout
My 2nd message I have received as a councillor has been about the gullies on Bromley Farm.
So I went and met up with the Residents’ Forum from The Hub who are working hard to resolve local issues working with the Plus Dane team. We met up with 2 officers and I raised some of the issues that have been given to me about the local gullies with Plus Dane and The Hub Forum who were going to monitor the progress of Plus Dane resolving these issues.
The Forum then took Plus Dane on a walk around The gullies talking about the issues and showing them all of the problems. 25 issues were raised and will be followed up on. Plus Dane Housing were really interested in the issues raised and are looking into getting these issues resolved.
Chairing Hub committee
I have chaired meetings for the Bromley Farm Hub to plan and review all the work that we have been doing to improve and plan events for a local community. This is part of my volunteering, and we have lots of new projects. I also volunteer at the Stay & Play group, the Peer Support group and the Bromley Bloomers.
The Hub has two other groups called Friends which is a social group and The Forum who look into resolving local issues with Plus Dane Housing.
Nursery Eco Flag
I am really proud of all my Nursery children who have worked hard to achieve our green flag status at nursery. They have been doing lots of eco-projects and this is a massive achievement, and we have all worked hard to get them to this point.
National Election meeting
I have taken part in a national meeting where I did a speech on behalf of the WEP with members of the WEP and public talking about my election experience and encouraging other women to stand for election.
Meeting Attendance
I have joined the Community, Environment and the Town Hall, Assets & Services Committess of Congleton Town Council, and signed up for the InBloom, Antisocial Behaviour and Congleton Green Working Groups.
My meeting attendance for May and June has been 100% of the statutory Council meetings (3 of 3) and the working groups have not met yet.
The Equality Party 