This is what I have been doing in the two months since my previous blog.
If you want to discuss my Council or voluntary work please contact me at cllrsusan.mead(at)congleton-tc.gov.uk
Bromley Farm Wellbeing Hub 10th anniversary
To celebrate the Hub’s 10th anniversary we had a giant community party and picnic. We invited families from around the area to attend our event. We had live music and entertainment and also offered the community the opportunity to look at what activities and facilities we had.
We asked local residents what they would like to see in the area so that we could raise grants to get the community what it wants for its community centre over the next year.
I was part of the team that organised this event, set the event up on the day and volunteered to run it throughout.
We had the exciting news with the community that having looked at grants with their previous suggestions and had applied that I had been successful at getting a national lottery grant £9050.
This grant will allow us to bring extra groups and activities to the Hub. These will be free for residents, such as food and facilitation for cookery lessons and a chair fit group, with refreshments and socialising.
The money will also be used to support the existing groups.
Party in the Park
Party in the Park was well attended community event it was a very hot day and Congleton town people flocked down to visit and take park in the event. It was a great chance to liaise with different groups who were presenting their community work and share ideas and projects together.
Congleton In Bloom Polytunnel
I have been part of a team that has made a community garden with children. The theme has been people and plants and we have made a garden where we have grown a variety of different vegetables and plants to go into this garden on the run up to In Bloom.
I have also created lots of artwork so drawn I wooden backboard and worked with the children to decorate the garden with arts and crafts. I have also made a wheelbarrow for the wheelbarrow competition and again added artwork in craft with the children which will be celebrated and commanded when the judges come to visit.
Friendship Garden
The friendship garden has been a hive of activity working with the residents to make the garden look good for the In Bloom judges. The garden had lots of visitors for the 10th anniversary celebration. The children at the party made baskets out of recycled milk bottles and were encouraged to collect berries from the garden.
We have had a huge crop of berries, vegetables which people have been using at home to create recipes which we have been sharing online. I have prepared our garden for the In bloom judges to visit. We have had lots of community plants up there have been lots of volunteers who have helped to prepare this garden and keep it weed free ready for the judging day. We have created a wildflower area and have managed to raise a grant to extend the garden and buy more resources.
There has been a huge amount of planning involved and background way to coordinate this project for this year and I am proud of the work that I have done to coordinate it all.
Residents Forum
I am a member of the Environment Committee for Congleton Town Council and one of my biggest topics for discussion about these meetings is fly tipping. On Bromley estate and Buglawton I attend residents meetings and also get a high volume of emails from local people sharing incidents of flight tipping near the homes. I work hard to try and resolve these problems and get the rubbish to be collected.
Some of the work that I have done has been linked with the housing association working through Bromley Farm Group from the hub – The Residents Forum. This group works with the local neighbourhood, the housing association, the police, the council and others to help improve the living conditions on Bromley farm. They work looking at problems like mould in houses, fly tipping, neighbourhood problems and overgrown trees.
As part of their works, they do a neighbourhood walk about where they look at areas that are problematic. I met with this group and discussed some of our council strategies at the environmental group, talked about areas that had been problematic and shared some hotspot areas that we were having problems with.
We talked about solutions and I have agreed to set up a network with the Environment Committee at the Town Council so that we are working together to improve our area and working effectively as a team rather than separate parties so our work is more effective. We also highlighted that one of the problems we have has been overgrown bushes and trees in our local area as they have not not been maintained properly and are incredibly overgrow causing problems.
This will be something that I will be working on council I am trying to come up with solutions and a more effective way of working to prevent fly tipping.
Social Media
Recently, I have been appalled at some of the comments and post made on social media about trans and LGBTQIA people. I have also been very concerned about the pride banners being removed and one of the things that really matter to me is that everybody feels valued and that people should be able to love who they like and be able to access social media without feeling unsafe and that our town is welcoming for everyone.
I am on the community safety working group and it was a great opportunity to share my concerns and work with people to try and come up with solutions to help prevent these things from happening working with the police and the local community safety team to come up with suggestions to prevent this behaviour in the future and use social media to promote positive things.
Community Safety Working Group
The community safety working group works hard to look at local issues such as drug hot sports, antisocial behaviour, hate crime and other issues that make our town feel unsafe. The team have been coming up with strategies to overcome these problems. We have also had a problem with Cars driving through the centre of town at great speeds and e-bikes and we have been looking at different ways that we can prevent this and have devised our town centre rule policy that means everyone can understand what is expected of them when using the town centre.
I have been working with shops on Barn Road who have been having problems with shoplifting and antisocial behaviour and I have shared this with the police and we have been looking at ways we can combat this. I have also been promoting Shopwatch with them and this will hopefully help them and give them the resources they need to effectively report and work with the police to eradicate these problems.
Town Hall and Assets
I have been working hard on this group to look at how our Town Hall is used and make the most of the Assets that we have. Looking at ways to maintain our budget and encourage new groups and existing groups to use our Town Hall and assets effectively and make sure that our facilities are correct for users.
Regeneration Working Group
I am happy to say that I am now the Chair of the Council’s Regeneration Working Group. This is an exciting opportunity to learn how to effectively chair a town council group and I am excited to be able to run this group and I look forward to working and managing this group to improve our town. This will be a great learning opportunity for me and will help me to progress within my role as a Town Councillor.
Community Support
I have been volunteering in the community and preventing isolation by talking to Cheshire East residents over the phone making sure they have everything they need and that they are OK.
Meeting Attendance
My meeting and working group attendance for the last two months has been 100% (7 of 7).
The Equality Party 