Here is an update on what I’ve been doing in the last two months since my previous blog.

I have spent a lot of time on Mayoral duties in the past two months. I will not detail them all here, but you can follow all my activities as Mayor on the Facebook page: Kay Wesley – Mayor of Congleton

Get in touch if you’d like to discuss your priorities for Congleton. Email cllrkay.wesley@congleton-tc.gov.uk or call or text 07711 459740

Or you can come to one of my surgeries – check out my Councillor Facebook page to find out when the next one is.

Combatting Crime

I chair the Community Safety Working Group of the Town Council, and we work closely with the local Beat Team, the Cheshire East Antisocial Behaviour team, the Fire Service and the CCTV service, to help prevent and combat crime.

Due to a number of issues in the town centre, including hate speech, cyclists going too fast, cars driving through and antisocial behaviour, we worked together to draft a suggested Code of Conduct for our town centre that we took to Community Committee in April. The Committee approved of taking it to the Annual Town Meeting on 15^th May to ask the public for input.

I attended the Police Community Cohesion meeting. This is where the public scrutinises the work of the local police and comments on how it is carried out. We watch bodycam footage and look at case reports, and say whether we think for example, too much force or not enough respect was shown. If you’d like to attend one of these, please get in touch with me and I will send you the invitation.

Equal Access Congleton       

This group of people with disabilities, chaired by Deborah Lawson, is helping us to make Congleton more accessible for all.

We have finalised our Disability Welcome Scheme for shops and businesses, and spent an afternoon taking leaflets out to discuss the scheme with owners.  It was very well-received, and 10 shops have already returned their checklists. Four of them immediately met the necessary criteria for a ‘silver’ award and several more are very close. 

If you own a shop, café or pub and you are interested in being in our Disability Guide to Congleton, you can download the checklist to complete on the Town Council website.

We were happy to see the Congleton Chronicle print a feature about this as part of its new ‘Disability Corner’.

The Town Hall was the venue for a job fair by the Job Centre (DWP), for people with disabilities, and I attended to speak to the employers and training companies that were there. It was great to see the wealth of opportunities available, and even better to note that the event was very busy all day.  Congleton Town Council also had a stall at the fair – well done to the officers who put this together.

White Ribbon

Congleton Town Council is White Ribbon Accredited, which means we strive to eradicate men’s violence against women and girls and all gender-based violence in Congleton.

The White Ribbon Working Group has been discussing the impact of the BBC Drama ‘Adolescence’, and ways to discuss the issues with young men and boys.  The team is visiting Eaton Bank Academy in May for a discussion with the 6^th form.

We have also been working with a PCC grant to procure anti-spiking kits which we will be giving to pubs and clubs, as well as early-morning coffee outlets, in the town. These kits allow you to do a test in the safety of your own home and send off the results, which provide evidence-level data if you have been spiked. They are not used to detect recreational drugs, only evidence of spiking. We hope having these in Congleton will deter people from committing this crime.

If you think you have been a victim of spiking, phone 999.  If you have been affected by sexual violence call RASAC on 0330 363 0063.

If you want to get involved in the White Ribbon campaign, please email info@congleton-tc.gov.uk.

myCWA Sponsored Walk

I completed a sponsored walk around Congleton (15km) on 26^th April in aid of myCWA – Cheshire Without Abuse, which is one of my Mayor’s Charities this year. I was relieved to get the all-clear from my consultant on my broken foot just 2 days before the walk!

With support from family and friends including Cllr Suzy Firkin and Helen Mitchell of myCWA, I walked this interesting new route, part of a new leaflet of walks we are planning to publish.

Along the way, we used the iNaturalist app to take note of flowers and plants, as part of Congleton Museum’s Our Disappearing Nature Project.

This work will also contribute to the international City Nature Challenge which tracks fauna in cities all over the world. Congleton is one of the participating ‘cities’.

Many thanks to all who helped and sponsored me – we raised over £2200 for myCWA.

Tree Planting

I have helped Trees for Congleton some more during this period, and was very happy to be on site with my company, Kanga, the day we planted the 30,000^th tree, completing the goal of this six-year project.

In addition I did some work behind the scenes on the ‘tree tracker’, updating the ‘carbon capture’ calculations to use more up to date scientific information. 

There will be a celebration of the completion of the project on 9^th May at 4pm at Hankinson’s Field.  If you’ve volunteered for Trees for Congleton, please do come along!

Travel and Transport

I followed up with CEC officers on the a paper we presented to the Town Council Community Committee about ‘joining-up’ cycleways and paths in Congleton, and we are now getting a meeting in the diary to discuss how to make this happen.

I also worked with other Councillors to draft input to the Cheshire East Transport Plan Vision, which we then agreed at Committee and submitted.

The consultation is now closed but you can watch a film about the new Cheshire East vision here:

We hope to give further input at the next stage of the plan development.

We continue to work with CEC on trying to get more bus services, especially to the new War Memorial Hospital Diagnostic Centre.

Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence

I attended the Cheshire East Domestic and Sexual Abuse Partnership (CEDSAP) Board strategy workshop, intended to create the vision and objectives for the next five years. This board brings together many agencies such as housing, family and children’s services, the DA service, the Police and the NHS to work jointly on outcomes in domestic and sexual violence. 

We learned that sexual violence is the single biggest type of violent crime in Cheshire, and discussed the scope of CEDSAP’s strategy going forward.

Meanwhile, myCWA has been retained as a refuge provider by CEC for a further 12 months, and has been successful in fund-raising to maintain its services.

There is a peer support group at Congleton monthly at Bromley Farm Wellbeing Hub. You can access this service by calling 01270 250390.

If you’ve been affected by domestic abuse you can get support locally – phone 0300 123 5101.

Neighbourhood Plan

The Neighbourhood Plan is being redrafted based on input from the public consultation. We are continuing to review drafts and hope to go into referendum later this year.

You can access the Neighbourhood Plan here:  www.congletonneighbourhoodplan.co.uk

Biodiversity

I held a meeting with the residents of Blackshaw Close, one of our identified 30 Biodiversity Sites. They were all keen to protect the area and maintain its biodiversity, perhaps adding some features like bird-boxes and wild flowers. They also gave feedback on general street maintenance and the state of the trees. I’ve followed up with several residents by email and will be meeting officers in the coming weeks to digest the feedback and come up with some suggested next steps to take to the residents. 

Ideally we would like the residents to lead anything that happens in the area, as some are doing in other parts of the town.

International Women’s Day Event

I attended an International Women’s Day Afternoon Tea Event with Elizabeth’s Group and as Mayor had the pleasure of introducing Barbara Andrew, who gave a great talk about the Suffragists and Suffragettes of Cheshire and how they helped women get the vote.

Bromley Farm Hub Group

The Bromley Farm Hub Group goes from strength to strength and the Bromley Bloomers are getting the Friendship Garden ready for InBloom judging. The Wellbeing Hub has had some improvements provided by Plus Dane including new chairs, a new TV and refurbished laptops.

The various activities such as the Friends’ Lunches, SMART recovery program, Women’s Mental Health peer support and Domestic Abuse Support continue. A new cookery class is due to start there soon. The Residents’ Forum supports local people with housing and outdoor environment issues, working with Plus Dane.

I am secretary for the group and organise committee meetings and the rota for using the Hub itself.  If you’re interested in any of the groups please email bromleyfarmhub@gmail.com to learn more.

Volunteering

I worked with Council officers and Volunteer Co-ordinator Alison Wright to design a ‘Discover Volunteering’ evening for voluntary organisations and potential volunteers to get together and explore opportunities to work together in Congleton. It was very successful and quite a few new people signed up to volunteer in their community. 

I also helped design the nomination forms and categories for the new Mayor’s Civic Awards which we will be giving out on 15^th May.  We have had a lot of nominations, I’m happy to say.

New Congleton Mental Health Hub

Plus Dane have offered the top floor of their office on Worrall Street as a new mental health wellbeing hub for the community.  I have been on the steering group for this initiative which is a partnership of many local mental health support groups, charitable and otherwise.

The facility has been beautifully refurbished by Plus Dane and I attended a workshop to have a look round and help plan how to make the best use of it.  I am delighted to be opening it as Mayor in May.

Support for LGBTQIA+ people

I have been supporting Congleton Pride by helping invite people to the Pride Parade. If your organisation wants to be part of the parade, please sign up here on the Pride Parade booking form.

I also attended an excellent educational talk by Abby, a friend who is a trans woman, and Congleton Pride is now organising a series of ‘Listening’ talks to enable people to get more understanding of the LGBTQIA+ community. If you’d like to attend these, please get in touch.

I attended the Trans Protection and Advisory Network (Cheshire) meeting. This group looks at all risks that particularly affect trans people including hate crime and certain types of domestic abuse. It is a network set up by myCWA that has received independent funding.

I raised an urgent item at our Community Committee about the Supreme Court ruling on transgender people, urging colleagues to support local trans people and stand up against hate crime.

Case Work and other activities

I have been helping some vulnerable residents access essential services, especially relating to crime, domestic abuse and mental health.

I have followed up on a number of highways queries including a problem with the bin lorries accessing North St and questions about the new entrance to the station.

I have had further correspondence with residents of Sheldon Ave and Cheshire East Council about the bins that are left on their street.

I took part in the Rotary Swimathon together with my consort Mike, Cadet Barney and some Scouts. They were all brilliant, especially Barney, who it turns out is a championship swimmer – he was amazing!

As part of the Town Council Personnel Committee I helped check updates to job descriptions for several staff roles.

I raised an urgent item at our Community Committee about the childcare funding crisis, working with Cllr Mead – see her blog in which she explains this problem in more detail.

I met with Deputy Mayor Cllr Robert Brittain and let him know of some of the things I’ve learned about being mayor, as well as handing over a couple of projects.

I attended the Neighbourhood Partnership Meeting – this brings together service providers from across Cheshire East to share projects and ideas.

I have tested several of the walks in our new ‘Discover Congleton’ leaflet, proof-read the copy and briefed the designer. Many thanks to the brilliant Heather Watson for devising the walks!

I attended a Women in Business Event in Manchester that gave me some interesting insights into how organisations are embracing diversity and making the most of female talent.

Meeting Attendance

I have attended 96% of my Council meetings and working groups in the past 2 months (25 of 26), and 100% of Council committee meetings. The latter are the decision-making meetings and as Mayor I have been entitled to attend all of them as an ‘ex-officio’ voting member. This is optional, but I have attended all I can.

I have really enjoyed being part all the committees this year, but it has taken a lot of time, with one of the committees on most Thursday evenings.

Mayoral Duties

As Mayor I have attended the following in the last 2 months, mostly with my husband and consort Mike, and often with our cadet, Barney:

• Elizabeth’s Group- International Women’s Day Event
• Artisanity Craft Fair – where I had a go at lace-making 😊
• South Cheshire Floral Society demonstration day
• Congleton Wellbeing Fayre
• Discover Volunteering evening
• Congleton Town Mayor’s Charity Ball
• Congleton Town Mayor’s team entered  Rotary Swimathon
• Disability Welcome Scheme Launch
• Mayor of Nantwich’s Quiz
• Rotary Swimathon
• Beauty and the Beast – Daneside Theatre
• The Mayor of Knutsford Charity Ball
• DWP Health & Disabilities Jobs Fair, Congleton Town Hall
• Easter Treats Congleton Town Centre
• Choral Society Spring Concert
• Congleton Wellbeing Hub Workshop
• Mayor of Biddulph Charity Ball
• Sponsored Walk for myCWA
• Mayor of Leek’s Charity Event

I have been writing this blog about my Council work for 6 years and, since 2023, so has my Equality Party colleague, Susan. You can see Susan’s posts here.

See my previous posts here:

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