Research

I have been helping with research, which focuses on the barriers women may face when participating in local government. This study aims to shed light on an often under-explored area of politics, examining the factors that may influence women’s involvement in local governance.

I have been discussing my experiences within local government. My insights will be incredibly valuable, helping to deepen the understanding of these issues and potentially informing future recommendations for supporting gender equity in local political roles.

Hillary Ave Allotments

I joined the Hillary Ave allotments group two years ago but have only recently been able to get involved with meetings due to some complications.

Its been lovely to set up a relationship with council and the allotments and meet such a kind group of people. They asked me to look at trees around the allotments with the council to see if some of the dangerous one could be looked at by a specialist

I have done this and an assessment has taken place.

I have also been discussing Congleton In Bloom with this group and forming relationships with The Bromley Bloomers there.

Its been nice to gain an understanding about how the allotments work and I am looking forward to arranging a tour around the gardens.

Mental Health Concerns

Please note: if you are affected by suicidal thoughts, help is available! Please call 0800 145 6485 (24 hour mental health crisis helpline).

I have been very concerned about recent suicides at Congleton Train station. I have raised my concerns at Council and discussed ways to see if anything can be done to support people and prevent these.

I have done lots of work with mental health over the years and this is something I feel very passionately about, raising awareness and seeing what the Council can be doing working with National Rail to see if changes can be made.

The Health and Wellbeing Group have agreed to set up a group to look into this which I am very pleased about.

Preventing Crime

During the Christmas period Congleton Police have been working tirelessly to keep our town safe, there has been a large police presence in town and its been a big achievement that Congleton has been named one of the safest towns to live in.

I have been part if the working group for Community Safety and this group is part of that achievement.

I was concerned that during one of busier night over the Christmas period that 2 incidents of violence happened on very severe with a member of our towns rugby club ending up seriously ill in hospital. The night itself was on of the busiest nights in town, with lots of people out for works christmas parties. It was also the boxing and the incident happened outside one of the busiest town pubs.

I asked the Police if we can look into getting some police support during these periods in the hopes that it will prevent incidents like this. The police were keen to help and I look forward to working on this with them at our next working group.

SEND Review

Cheshire East SEND have sent our a new consultation about how they are going to run their service in the future. I have taken the time to look at this consultation and give feedback to them using my professional experience and my own experience as a mum with a child with SEND. I hope my work has given them an opportunity to hear my own  experiences and hopefully can make changes to improve services for children with SEND and professionals working within SEND.

Friendship Garden

I have been working hard to plan and recruit a good team of volunteers for the Friendship Garden on Hillary Ave. I have made plans and I am looking forward to working on the garden in March. During the storms I have been making sure the garden is safe and keeping our wormary fed and safe.

As the weather returns I am excited to get the garden ready for 2025 and have lots of activities planned.

The Bromley Farm Hub

It has been another busy year for The Bromley Farm Hub on Parnell Square. I Chair the Bromley Farm Hub Group and wrote the Chair’s part of the Annual Report that was made public recently.

There has been lots of new groups established which is great to see as it is now thriving. It was important to me when this was established that Bromley Farm could have a community group that was transparent with funding and accounts, was open to all residents and encouraged members of Bromley Farm take part in the activities.

The recent AGM was a shining example of this and it was a real achievement to see all the amazing work our volunteers have done. We have some fabulous groups there running free activities for residents of Bromley Farm and working hard to improve living conditions and improve our area.

Town Hall and Assets

Our town hall is a big building and keeping it heated and with the lights on is important to preserve our towns history. But its also important to make sure that it is self sufficient so our residents council tax is being utilised for the purposes.

We have been looking at ways to promote the building and make it cost-effective. It’s a team we’ve been reviewing the various activities there and coming up with different ways to see what we can do to keep this building going and be self-sufficient. There have been many creative suggestions and it’s been a pleasure to take part in this planning.

Its been nice to see that our Town Mayor and member of the Equality Team Kay Wesley has been encouraging youth visits and showing people around the town hall with our town crier Vicky Pulman.

Teaching our community about our towns history and encouraging our residents to get involved in our town hall and council activities.

Town lights switch on – Review

As part of the team that took part in the lights switch on in town I came together with the planning the event committee to discuss its success and was to improve the switch on in the future.

Overall it was a fabulous event and one of my main objectives of joining this group was to make the lights switch on less crowded and more inclusive.

I was working on the stage and had a good view of the town centre and it ran clearly and smoothly throughout the evening which ai was really pleased about.

We discussed any issues together and have looked at ways to overcome these in the oncoming years. I was really proud of this years light switch on and was proud to be part of the planning team.

Grit

As the colder weather came in and Congleton was covered in snow after a few days people started to struggle and ran out grit.

To keep town moving and people safe we needed changes to our current plan. We have planned to acquire and store some of our own supply of grit so that Streetscape can distribute this in colder snaps to help with this situation.

Meeting Attendance

My meeting attendance these two months has been 93% for all committees and working groups (14 of 15) and 80% for core committee meetings (4 of 5).

Here you can see my previous blogs.