May-June 2025 – Kay Wesley – The Equality Party

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

During these months I handed over the Mayoralty to the new Town Mayor, Cllr Robert Brittain. I wish him well in his upcoming year.

You can check out 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.

Equal Access Congleton

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

We rolled out our Disability Welcome Scheme for shops and businesses, and have awarded the first few ‘Disability Welcome Awards’ to local shops. Several other businesses are very close to getting an award and we will be getting in touch with them.

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 are planning a number of awareness raising activities as part of Disability Pride Month in July – including social media and children’s activities at the Town Centre playdays.

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 drafted a suggested Code of Conduct for our town centre that we took the Annual Town Meeting on 15^th May and the public broadly supported it.

We have also met with the police and CEC about the possibility of ANPR or other tactics to stop motor vehicles driving down Bridge St., which has been a growing problem in recent months.

I attend the Police Community Cohesion meetings, where the public scrutinises the work of the local police and comments on how it is carried out. Cheshire Constabulary has now asked me to chair these meetings in our local area, which I have accepted. We would like more members of the public to attend these – get in touch with me if you’re interested.

We’ve been dealing with hate crime in town again, both so-called ‘preachers’ in the town centre, and Congleton Pride banners being torn down. The Police are investigating.

I attended the East Cheshire Chamber of Commerce Business Breakfast meeting at which Dan Price, PCC for Cheshire, was giving a presentation about his progress and priorities.

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 Team visited Eaton Bank Academy in May for a discussion with the 6^th form. It was very well-received and several of the young male students made suggestions for engaging younger boys around positive masculinity and combating the effects of misogyny in social media and games.

I visited Congleton High School, delivered some more white ribbons to hand out to students and had a chat with the headteacher about how they are rolling out the campaign internally. There is a lot of support amongst students and Ms Thurland, the head, plans to name one of their school awards after White Ribbon.

In June the White Ribbon team visited several pubs in the Buglawton area and chatted to publicans and customers about preventing gender-based violence. We had some great conversations and several people made their White Ribbon Promise.

We are now rolling out the anti-spiking test kits which allow you to do a test at home and get evidence-level data, if you think you have been spiked. We hope that this will help people get justice even if they didn’t report the incident the night it happened.

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.

We have some local businesses keen to become White Ribbon Accredited. If you are a business owner and would like to join in as part of your inclusivity agenda, please get in touch. Anyone can become a White Ribbon Ambassador or Champion.

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

Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence

Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence are the most prevalent violent crimes in Cheshire. I helped set up a peer support group for DA Survivors in Congleton. It is still running on the last Friday of the month. Get in touch with myCWA for details: 01270 250390.

Cheshire East is going to publish its new DA Strategy and I’ve been on the team that has helped to shape it (the CEDSAP Board). This strategy will soon go into public consultation.

I chose myCWA as one of my Mayor’s Charities and have been planning the ‘cheque handover’ to them.

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

Trees for Congleton

The tree group held a celebration of the achievement of planting 30,000 trees in Congleton over 5 years. I was delighted to join with MP Sarah Russell and former Cheshire High Sheriff Dr Denis Dunn in unveiling the celebration plaque.

I’ve enjoyed volunteering with this group on occasion too, and it was great to see them achieve their objective. What an incredible legacy for Congleton.

Travel and Transport

I had a meeting with CEC officers on the a paper we presented to the Town Council Community Committee about ‘joining-up’ cycleways and paths in Congleton, and some of the suggestions will be added to the LCWIP (local cycling and walking improvement plan) for the area.

I attended the Cheshire East Bus Forum meeting in Sandbach and heard about the additional investment into bus services in the borough. I asked some questions about why Congleton is not getting significantly more services since we are very ‘under-bussed’ and our survey showed that Congleton people would use buses more if they were available. CEC Officers and the owner of D&G Buses both agreed to follow up with us.

One thing we agreed to promote is the ‘16-19 Bus Saver’ pass which gives young people £1 fares throughout the borough. This could be very helpful for young people to save on travel costs and encourage bus use. Care leavers get free adult fares until age 21.

I met with the headteacher and pupils from Buglawton school to discuss road safety issues on Buxton Road. I have asked CEC Highways to make that stretch of road 30mph and also provide a crossing for people going to and from school from the St John’s Rd. estate.

I also joined families for ‘walk to school week’ and was very impressed with how many were walking down from the ‘park and stride’ spot at the Church House.

Neighbourhood Plan

I gave more feedback to the Neighbourhood Plan in the post-Regulation 14 (first public consultation) phase and attended meetings to develop the next version, which will go to the Examiner. After that, Cheshire East will consult and then it goes to referendum.

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

Mayor’s Civic Awards

During my Mayoral year, I introduced the idea of Civic Awards for volunteers in our community and was delighted to hand out the first of these as Mayor this year. All the finalists were very impressive and it was a tough decision to choose between them – they are all winners in my view! The judging panel consisted of councillors and officers – many thanks to those who took the time to participate.

We have so many wonderful volunteers who work tirelessly to support others in Congleton and it was great to have an evening to celebrate them in the Town Hall. I look forward to seeing even more nominations next year.

You can read about the awards and recipients on the Town Council website.

High St Awards

I initiated a scheme to reward local businesses for serving Congleton over many years, and we handed out the first of these in May, to the Congleton Chronicle, Davenports Menswear and Janex. The team at Jantex were particularly thrilled as the business turns 50 this year.

Bromley Farm Hub Group

The Bromley Farm Hub Group is currently planning a Community Celebration for 10 years of the Wellbeing Hub on Parnell Square. This will be include free food, live music and lots of activities for the children. I’m helping out as a volunteer and secretary of the group.

If you’re interested in helping out with the Bromley Farm Hub group of the groups please email bromleyfarmhub@gmail.com to learn more.

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.

I was delighted to have the honour of opening this as Mayor and look forward to continuing to work to encourage service provision and co-ordination at the Hub.

Congleton Pride

The Pride team is working hard for this year’s event on 19^th July. I am on the team and have been helping out where I can. I drafted a press release and asked the CCTV team to help out when we had some banners stolen. It makes me very sad that we still have people in Congleton who disagree with Pride – how can you disagree with inclusion and being kind to people?

There are still places left in the Pride Parade. If your organisation wants to be part of the parade, please sign up here on the Pride Parade booking form.

VE Day Celebration

Congleton Partnership’s Senior Forum and the Town Council had a celebration of 80 years since VE Day in the Town Hall, and invited elderly people from across the community, especially from care homes. I was very happy to support the event and attend as Mayor.

Case Work and other activities

I continue to help some vulnerable residents access essential services, especially relating to crime, domestic abuse and mental health.

I have followed up on a number of residents’ queries including tidying up grass verges, and facilitating residents taking responsibility for local wildflower areas.

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

Town Meeting and Mayor-Making

I had the great pleasure of chairing both the Town Meeting and the Mayor-Making this year. The Town Meeting was well attended and it was good to hear the questions and comments from the public. I was delighted to handover to Cllr Brittain at the Mayor-Making and thank all the people who have made the past year such a good one for Congleton.

If you want to know more about my mayoral year, here you can read my Mayoral Retirement Speech.