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

Our response to COVID-19 continues and as Chair of the Community & Environment Committee, I am on the COVID-19 Congleton Community Leaders’ group. I have also been moving forward on several other projects.

COVID-19

As we enter the ‘second wave’ I am continuing to work with the COVID Community Leaders’ Group and have volunteered again to be on a helpline for residents as well as continuing to moderate the Facebook page. We are particularly concerned about isolation and loneliness – for all ages – as winter comes and some people face the prospect of Christmas without their family. If you need support, or can offer, it please visit the CTC COVID-19 support page.

My Council activities

If you want to chat to me about what I am doing, my work in the Council or about the Women’s Equality Party, we usually have an informal ‘open house’ on the second Monday each month at 7.30pm, previously in the Young Pretender in Congleton but more recently as an informal Zoom meeting. The next one is on the 9th November.

A number of initiatives have moved forward in the last couple of months:

Domestic Abuse

The Domestic Abuse Clinic that I proposed to the Council in July has started in Congleton. We have now managed to secure funding from the Cheshire Community Fund to increase the clinics from monthly to weekly, which is great.

At these clinics people can have an informal discussion with the Police and with a myCWA support worker about the options open to them and how to prevent or escape from abuse. The clinics have been going well, with a mixture of face-to-face and telephone support for Congleton residents. A good number of people have received support and harm has been prevented as a result. Many thanks to the team!

This service is as important as ever. In the 14 weeks from 16th July to 22nd October there were 118 incidents of domestic violence reported to the Police in Congleton – more than one a day. In addition there were 29 reports of sexual violence in this period. Given that these crimes are known to be under-reported, the actual incidence is likely to be higher.

White Ribbon

Fantastic news:

Congleton Town Council has received White Ribbon Accreditation!

This means that CTC is among around 100 organisations across the country who have officially been recognised for their work to eradicate male violence against women.

Our Congleton White Ribbon purpose is to “Strive to eradicate all forms of gender-based violence and abuse in Congleton”, recognising that victims can also be male.

To show our accreditation, we decorated the town with white ribbons, flew the White Ribbon Flag from the Town Hall and set up stall at the Maker’s Market on 26th September as our White Ribbon Launch event.Professor Chris Green OBE, President of White Ribbon UK, came to help us mark the occasion, as did our Mayor Cllr Sally Holland, CEO of myCWA, Saskia Ritchie, and Superintendent Peter Crowcroft of Cheshire Police.

On the day we had a great many people come and talk to us about their own experiences and sign the White Ribbon Promise. We were particularly pleased to have staff from schools and local employers express an interest in their own organisation becoming White Ribbon Accredited, and I am following up with them.Bottom right – Prof Chris Green, OBE, President of White Ribbon UKWe are continuing with our outreach and community activities to spread the word.

If you support this cause you can make your own White Ribbon Promise here, and if you’d like to volunteer, please get in touch with me.Our next milestone is another visit to the Maker’s Market on 28th November, and other activities around 25th November, which is both ‘White Ribbon Day’ and ‘International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2020’.

Antisocial Behaviour Working Group

I chair this group which has been meeting by Zoom. At the most recent meeting we discussed the PSPO (Public Space Protection Order) in the centre of Congleton. The good news is that there have been no reports of violating the order, which means that our town centre is relatively safe and quiet.

We have still had COVID breaches – 127 of them in the 14 weeks to 22nd October, and the 147 domestic/sexual offences mentioned above in the same period. Road safety is still a concern with a large number of speeding offences in particular.

Health & Wellbeing

The survey on post-COVID Health & Wellbeing completed on the 28th August and the results were published in our September Community & Environment Committee, which I chair. The responses have been very insightful and it is clear that many people have been affected financially, emotionally and practically by this crisis:· 

• 76% said their mental health had been affected in some way, but most said ‘a little’ affected
• Two-thirds of parents said the virus had impacted their children or their role as a parent
• Half said their personal relationships had been affected· 63% said they were ‘very’ or ‘a little’ anxious about going to a pub or restaurant
• More than half – 53% – were anxious about returning to their place of work

The Health & Wellbeing group, which I am a member of, will develop strategies and plans to support residents based on the responses.

Childcare

One of the goals set out by our ‘Childcare Group’ is to improve local childcare and help local people – especially single parents (mostly mothers) – access work. With this goal I set about seeing if we can provide an ‘online’ childcare programme for people to join and train for a career in childcare.

I suggested this to Karen Bruce, Adult Education Manager at Macclesfield College, who did a great job of putting together a comprehensive programme, covering ‘back to work’ skills as well as all the childcare basics, safeguarding, health and safety, mental health, food safety and so on. In addition to childcare, Karen has put together a similar programme for adult social care training for those who might like to re-train in that area; as we know that sector is under-resourced. Some of the modules of the two programmes (like employability and digital skills) are the same.

This course is a 4-week programme and about 2 days need to be face-to-face, the rest is online learning which allows people to learn flexibly, perhaps around the needs of family, work or other responsibilities.

We are hoping we can set up a pilot course in Congleton, and I’ve been discussing this with Usman Ashiq of Plus Dane and Susie Mead of Friendly Faces Day Nursery, who both know people who might join this training.

The courses would be free to anyone on benefits or a low income. If you are interested in getting on one of these courses, please get in touch with me.

Congleton Green

The SLIC (Sustainable Living in Congleton) elearning course is progressing and my main input is on user experience and learning design. The content is currently being developed.I’m a member of the Congleton Green Group which is next meeting in early November and is in the process of finalising sustainability targets for the coming years.

Integrated Transport

I’m a member of this working group and transport has been a controversial subject through the COVID pandemic. Cycling in the pedestrianised area has been a major source of public debate, as has parking in the town centre and potential 20mph zones. Furthermore, improvements to public transport, especially buses, are not likely in the short term because people are being encouraged to avoid bus use.

Therefore this group is looking at short-term quick fixes such as improved cycle-ways and footpaths, whilst at the same time considering our input to the Congleton Town Delivery Plan phase of the Cheshire East Local Transport Plan, which is just beginning, and understanding the impact of the Town Centre Vitality Plans being developed by CEC. The group will come up with recommendations to be considered by the Council at a public meeting.

Congleton Museum Trust

I am delighted to report that Congleton Museum, of which I’m a trustee, is now open to visitors again. You have to have a pre-booked ticket, but it is still free to visit. The team have done a fantastic job of making the Museum COVID-safe for visitors, staff and volunteers.Please support your local Museum!

If you’d like to visit you can book at ticket here, or if you’d like to support financially you can donate here.Museum visitors must pre-book online, but admission is freeAlso, you can follow the Museum on Facebook for interesting posts about its artefacts and local Congleton history.

Congleton Pride

The group would like to know more about the needs of the people in Congleton, so I built two online Pride surveys, having worked with a number of people to create the questions (thank you). We now have the two surveys live. Please answer the appropriate one for you:

• For people who are LGBTQ+ – what is life like for you in Congleton?
• For other people in Congleton – tell us about your own thoughts on LGBTQ+

If you cannot answer online there is a print version of both surveys available at the TIC in the Town Hall. Thanks for your input!

My Meeting Attendance

Overall, my Council meeting attendance for the two months has been 100% for all council meetings and working groups, either face-to-face or virtually (18 of 18). For the mandatory council committees my rate is 100% (7 of 7). I’m 18 months in, and since I became a Councillor in May 2019 my overall attendance is 91%.

The Town Council’s remit unfortunately does not include things such as Social Services, Health, Transport – these are the domain of Cheshire East, but we can lobby in these areas.I am a member of eleven other Groups as well as the Council Committees, which meet at regular intervals, typically every couple of months.

These are the meetings I attend:

Council

Community and Environment Committee (Chair)

Planning Committee

Health and Wellbeing Working Group

Anti-Social Behaviour Working Group (Chair)

Congleton Partnership

White Ribbon Working Group

Integrated Transport Working Group

Congleton Green Working Group

Congleton Museum Trust

COVID Community Leaders

Congleton Business Support

Congleton Pride Steering Group

Elizabeth’s Group – commemorating Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy

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

Our response to COVID-19 continues and, with everyone getting used to virtual working, I have been working with colleagues to move forward on several other projects.

COVID-19

As the lockdown has eased, shops and businesses have been opening in Congleton and it has been pleasing to see people going out to eat, shop and meet, for the most part maintaining social distancing. I have continued to work with Council officers and community leaders on setting the strategy for the next phase and potential actions to address a ‘second wave’ in Congleton. The phone helpline has now stopped (redirects to the Council number) but the Facebook COVID community group is still running. Community Leaders are now meeting monthly from September.

My Council activities

If you want to chat to me about what I am doing, my work in the Council or about the Women’s Equality Party, we usually have an informal ‘open house’ on the second Monday each month at 7.30pm, previously in the Young Pretender in Congleton but more recently as an informal Zoom meeting. The next one is on the 14th September.

A number of initiatives have moved forward in the last couple of months:

Domestic Abuse

I have been working with DI Claire Jesson of Cheshire Police and Saskia Richie of myCWA to see what services we can deliver to local people, and in July we brought a proposal to the Community & Environment Committee of the Council for a monthly Domestic Abuse Clinic in the Old Saw Mill, Congleton.

At these clinics people can have an informal discussion with the Police and/or with a myCWA support worker about the options open to them and how to prevent or escape from abuse.

I was delighted to see that the Councillors were in strong support of the clinic. It was voted through unanimously and I hope will make a real difference to families in Congleton. Many thanks are due to Peter Aston of the Old Saw Mill for the venue.

Meanwhile, Council officers and I are continuing to submit funding applications to build on this for more frequent clinics and even a ‘domestic abuse hub’ with support groups and a crèche facility. If you know of any funding sources, let me know!

Some background facts and figures:

• From 23rd March to 12thJuly there were 140 incidents of domestic abuse or violence reported to the police in Congleton – an average of more than one a day.
• The Charity Refuge reported an 80% year-on-year increase in helpline calls and 800% increase in visits to its website in June 2020, which it attributed to the impact of the COVID lockdown.
• According to Safelives, domestic abuse is under-reported. On average victims at ‘high risk of serious harm or murder’ live with domestic abuse for 2-3 years before getting help.
• Cheshire Police, together with Cheshire East Council and myCWA, collaborate to deliver one of most effective and co-ordinated domestic abuse services in the country, dealing with crimes reported as well as implementing preventative measures. Their work was highlighted in a BBC documentary with Cheshire survivor Abi Blake – more can be seen here. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-51360772.

DI Claire Jesson

White Ribbon

Our White Ribbon Group has made progress on a number of fronts recently. Richard Walton, one of our Ambassadors, has run an awareness session for Councillors and they were very supportive of CTC becoming White Ribbon Accredited. Several individual Councillors pledged their personal support, and Cllrs Robert Hemsley and Robert Douglas agreed to join the White Ribbon Working Group. Cllr Hemsley is our new Chair.

We broadened our Congleton White Ribbon purpose to be to “Strive to eradicate all forms of gender-based violence and abuse in Congleton”, recognising that victims can also be men.

We are reaching out to the community including getting connected with the Congleton Education Community Partnership and PubWatch, and also we’ve been asked to help other Town Councils with Accreditation.

Meanwhile, I updated our White Ribbon Action Plan to include some of our outreach and awareness activities, including the Maker’s Market in September and November 2020. I sent the revised plan to the White Ribbon headquarters and we hope it will now be enough to award our Accreditation.

Our local Police Beat Inspector, Kelly Johnston, is going to work with our White Ribbon Working Group, in addition to the links with the DA Clinic (above).

White Ribbon is a national charity that encourages men to stand up against gender-based violence and abuse.

Antisocial Behaviour Working Group

I chair this group which has been meeting by Zoom. The group discussed additional CCTV provision and a proposal has now been approved by Council for an additional mobile camera in the town.

ASB in the outdoors has included Astbury Mere, Mossley Cricket Ground, Congleton Park and Little Street recently – the police asked that people call 101 if they see an incident.

I have worked with the residents of Silk Mills who have had a number of problems with misuse of a public footpath through their garden. The Police are doing extra patrols there and the Streetscape team cut down some bushes that were providing a hiding place.

The community spirit we have seen through COVID has led to welcome moves to add more Speedwatch and Neighbourhood Watch Groups in Congleton, which the ASB team and the Police are supporting.

The biggest single category of crime we see in Congleton remains Domestic Abuse, and Sgt Paul Brunton reported 89 incidents in the 6 weeks between ASB group meetings. This will be on the agenda for the parent Community & Environment Committee meetings in future (which I also chair) so that these statistics will be made public. Domestic Abuse is not a ‘private’ matter – it is a challenge for all of us to tackle.

Health & Wellbeing

Our Congleton Health & Wellbeing Working Group has a priority of supporting adult mental health, and I’m delighted to see that, following our meeting with them, SWaNs are now offering an online support services funded by the Cheshire Community Fund. Details are here:

The survey on post-COVID Health & Wellbeing completed on the 28th August and the results will be published in September. The responses have been very insightful and it is clear that many people have been affected financially, emotionally and practically by this crisis.

Childcare

I am working with Council colleagues to explore opportunities to improve childcare supply and support childcare businesses in Congleton. Many of them are struggling due to the lockdown and there is little government help for them. I am looking into opportunities to support training of childcare professionals.

ANSA, the Council HR provider, has informed us that they do not offer any support or information to new parents on their rights with regard to flexible working, childcare and parental leave. It is no wonder that the Gender Pay Gap in Cheshire East is not improving! We will be looking at how we can help with this.

Our Childcare workshop team (parents and providers) have given us some direction in terms of the questions parents and providers need to answer, and we are collecting information for a page on our website to support them.

Meanwhile, the Community and Environment Committee approved a proposal I brought to write to the Minister for Local Government in support of calls for carer’s allowance for Council meetings, to open up our democracy to those with caring responsibilities who could not otherwise become Councillors.

Congleton Green

The SLIC (Sustainable Living in Congleton) elearning course is progressing and I’m providing input from a user experience point of view. We hope to have this delivered by the end of the year.

I’m also supporting the Congleton Sustainability Group in putting together a series of webinars, each on sustainability topic, to engage and inform residents about what we can all do for the environment and our carbon footprint.

Integrated Transport

We met in July to discuss proposals to create safe cycling routes to schools. Headteachers, especially of the high schools, are worried about children cycling instead of using public transport when some of our roads do not have cycle lanes. Pupils are advised to avoid buses due to COVID and there isn’t space for all parents to drive their children to school.

We came up with a proposal to ask CEC to create complete, safe cycle routes to each high school and the Council voted to approve this, so it has been sent to Cheshire East Council.

Congleton Museum Trust

I am continuing to support the sub-team to looking at re-opening of the museum. Most of the action plan has been completed and there is final task to sort out the WiFi to cope with the new contactless payments, video doorbell etc. We are hoping the museum will open after that.

Congleton Pride

Congleton Pride could not go ahead as an event in July, but we flew the Pride flag on the Town Hall that week. We had a Pride meeting and agreed on some activities to keep the movement alive whilst communicating (mostly) virtually. I suggested, and the team agreed, we might survey the people of Congleton and our LGBT+ community to learn more about being LGBT+ in our town. I did some research and drafted some initial survey questions for review.

Cheshire East Equality Strategy Input

I contacted Marilyn Houston, Equality Champion for CEC and sent input to the strategy. As a follow up we had a meeting and discussed the role of the Equality Champion to see if it is worthwhile setting up this role at Town Council level.

My Meeting Attendance

Overall, my Council meeting attendance for the two months has been 89% for all council meetings and working groups, either face-to-face or virtually (17 of 19). For the mandatory council committees my rate is 88% (7 of 8).

The Town Council’s remit unfortunately does not include things such as Social Services, Health, Transport – these are the domain of Cheshire East, but we can lobby in these areas.

I am a member of eleven other Groups as well as the Council Committees, which meet at regular intervals, typically every couple of months. I am a member of the groups below but I also attend the Town Centre, Assets & Services Committee and the Finance & Policy Committee whenever I can, as well as Congleton Sustainability Group.

Council

Community and Environment Committee (Chair)

Planning Committee

Personnel Committee

Health and Wellbeing Working Group

Anti-Social Behaviour Working Group (Chair)

Congleton Partnership

White Ribbon Working Group

Integrated Transport Working Group

Congleton Green Working Group

Congleton Museum Trust

COVID Community Leaders

Congleton Business Support/Regeneration

Congleton Pride Steering Group

Elizabeth’s Group – commemorating Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy

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

Our response to COVID-19 continues and as Chair of the Community & Environment Committee, I am on the COVID-19 Congleton Community Leaders’ group. I have also been moving forward on several other projects.

The Congleton COVID-19 Response

CTC has been working with community groups all over the town and many thanks once more to all those volunteers and organisations who have worked tirelessly, as well as our Council officers who have worked long hours to support the community.

We continue to maintain our various support activities as follows:

• A telephone helpline that people can call to get support. The number to call is 01260 541 815 and the helpline is open every day from 11am-7pm. I answer the phones on Thursdays and Saturdays.
• A section of the Congleton Town Council Website. I continue to maintain some of the content including the Frequently Asked Questions page.
• Congleton Coronavirus Community Support Group on Facebook.I’m one of the admins/moderators of this group, and posts are moderated to avoid spam and ensure it is for those with a connection to Congleton.
• Ongoing Communication of the support available through the Congleton Chronicle, our CTC magazine ‘Bear Necessities’, posters around the town and social media posts.
• A Community Leaders Group now meets fortnightly and we are planning for the next phase of the pandemic.
• A Business Support Working Group has been set up, chaired by Cllr Russell Chadwick. I sit on this group and as a local business owner I can bring my experience. The first act of the group was to survey local businesses to ask them about the impact of the pandemic.

Council Business

Congleton Town Council is now having full Council and Committee meetings by Zoom. The meetings are open to the public who can apply for the link and meeting details in advance. At my suggestion, the meeting information is now posted on the CTC Facebook Page as well as the CTC website.

Council Zoom meeting

My Council activities

If you want to chat to me about what I am doing, my work in the Council or about the Women’s Equality Party, we usually have an informal ‘open house’ on the second Monday each month at 7.30pm, previously in the Young Pretender in Congleton but more recently as an informal Zoom meeting. The next one is on the 20th July.

I’ve been moving ahead, with colleagues, on a number of initiatives that are priorities in the CTC business plan, as follows:

Antisocial Behaviour Working Group

I chair this group which met during lockdown by Zoom. Our police colleagues informed us that in the first two months of lockdown we had 188 COVID-related police incidents, mostly in private dwellings or at Astbury Mere. The Police policy is to Engage, Explain and then Enforce.

Police domestic violence calls were down slightly year-on-year in the first two months, at 61 (88 last year). This is still an alleged one domestic violence incident a day, which is much more than the amount of street violence we have in Congleton. The ASB group will now monitor domestic violence and abuse reports from the Police and develop strategies to support preventative measures.

Experts warn that where Police DV calls have not increased this may be due to ‘pent-up demand’ where the victim and perpetrator are in the house together in lockdown and victims feel unable to call.

Domestic Abuse

The lockdown has continued to cause concern as domestic abuse calls to helplines and visits to websites are skyrocketing across the country (Refuge has reported a 950% increase in website visits).

MyCWA here in Cheshire East has been very active supporting families with preventative measures and I wrote and maintained the page called ‘Staying Safe at home’ on the CTC website. The latest information added has been about child and adolescent violence to parents. Two thirds of this is son-to-mother violence with 87% of perpetrators being boys.

I and my WEP colleagues have been putting up our own ‘YOU ARE NOT ALONE’ posters with the same domestic abuse helpline phone numbers as the myCWA ones, just to help support their message. Thanks to all the shops who have put our posters up.

Thanks To Go East for putting the poster up

White Ribbon

White Ribbon is a national charity that encourages men to stand up against gender-based violence and abuse. Richard Walton, who is on our White Ribbon Group, has run an awareness session for Council Officers by Zoom, and a similar session for Councillors is planned in July.

Our White Ribbon Action Plan has been submitted to the national HQ and we hope this will mean we get our Accreditation.

I and other members of our White Ribbon Group attended a webinar run by the national White Ribbon organisation to allow us to share experiences. Subsequently, White Ribbon asked me to write a blog for their website, which you can read here.

My Blog on the White Ribbon website

I have been working with Cheshire Police, which is a White Ribbon organisation. Our local Sgt Paul Brunton introduced me to the Beat Inspector Kelly Johnston, who is keen to join our White Ribbon Working Group and informs me that our local senior officers, Supt Crowcroft and CI Taylor are very supportive too. The Police Commissioner for Cheshire, David Keane, is also a White Ribbon Ambassador.

Health & Wellbeing

Our Congleton Health & Wellbeing Working Group has a priority of supporting adult mental health, and the COVID-19 epidemic has also shone a light on the importance of mental health services and mental wellbeing. We have continued to promote services and for those who need it, including through a page of our CTC website.

We are still working with other agencies on our goal of better local provision – in Congleton – for adult mental health.

I drafted a survey that the Health & Wellbeing Group is sending to Congleton residents on the impact that the pandemic has had on their overall wellbeing including health, relationships, family life and household income.

Childcare

The COVID crisis has brought the national childcare challenge into sharp focus, as some parents have been unable to go back to work due to a lack of childcare, and nurseries, including several in Congleton, are under threat of closure due to the financial impact of the pandemic and the fact that they are not allowed to run at full capacity. This has had a particular impact on working mothers.

The outputs of our March Childcare workshop have been moving forward. We are aiming to meet with ANSA, the Council HR provider, to ensure that the Council has all the best practices in place.

Council Officers are gathering information for an online Childcare Hub for Congleton.

I brought proposals to Council Community & Environment Committee to continue this work. The proposal included the resolution to write to the Minister for Local Government in support of the campaign to allow carers’ allowance for future Councillors (this allowance exists at Borough, but not Town/Parish, level). This is to include those with caring responsibilities in our democracy and give, for example, single parents or those caring for elderly or disabled relatives the option to become Councillors in the future. The proposal was passed with a majority vote.

Congleton Green

The project to make Congleton Sustainability Group’s ‘Sustainable Living in Congleton’ (SLIC) into an eLearning has started and I’m supporting Council officers in meetings with the chosen vendor to deliver this project.

Many thanks to the officers who have created a useful new page on the CTC website about sustainable planting by the Council in Congleton.

Integrated Transport

I sit on this working group which met to discuss ideas for Congleton Town Centre post-lockdown in order to ensure that the town centre was safe for people to return to.

Our proposals to Council were:

• 20mph limit in the town centre and 10mph in Broadhurst Lane
• Pedestrian passing points made by closing some – NOT most or all – parking bays in certain streets (e.g. Lawton St, High St, Swan Bank)
• Adding advance cycling stops at the traffic lights on Mountbatten Way to make the junction safer for cyclists
• Signage in the town centre
• Moving street furniture if needed to create safe social distancing.

We voted these through at full Council on 28th May and they were sent to Cheshire East. Unfortunately, CEC then employed a blanket closure of parking bays whilst re-introducing parking charges and allowing cycling on Bridge St, all of which were contra to the CTC proposal! Some of these measures have since been rolled back and Council officers are working towards a resolution.

Congleton Museum Trust

I am a Trustee of the Museum and a Council representative with Cllr Firkin on the Board of Trustees. We met to discuss re-opening options, post lockdown.

I volunteered for the sub-team to look at re-opening in more detail and I wrote the initial Risk Assessment.

The Museum is now likely to open in August when all measures for safety and social distancing will be in place.

Moody Hall

I asked for the future of Moody Hall to be on the agenda at the Community & Environment Committee. CTC is very keen that this building is supported and maintained as it has considerable historical significance, due in part to the fact that it was the home of the girls’ school started by Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy. CTC officers are consulting with CEC Planning department to find out why the latest planning application to develop the building into flats appears to be stalled.

Moody Hall at the end of the 19th century

Other Activities

I have continued to support residents with ad hoc queries about COVID-19 re-opening (in particular getting the public toilets open in support of shops re-opening), antisocial behaviour and planning, among other things.

Cheshire East Equality Strategy Input

Cheshire East Council published a new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, and on behalf of The Women’s Equality Party (not CTC) I provided some input to this.

First, I asked why only the legal minimum 9 ‘Protected Characteristics’ are considered (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation) when it says Cheshire East is committed to “being an area of opportunity where everyone has a fair chance and people from all backgrounds can take part in community life”.

I suggested adding more characteristics, to include people who are often excluded for reasons other than the legal 9. For example, in our Congleton Equality and Inclusion Policy we add three more characteristics: ‘People in care’, ‘People with caring responsibilities’ and ‘People of different socio-economic groups’.

The statistics on hate crime in the strategy document showed that in the 12 months to March 2019 there were 636 crimes due to Race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, or national origins, Religion or belief, Gender or gender identity, Sexual orientation, Disability or Age.

According to CEDAP in the same period in Cheshire East there were:

• 4566 cases of domestic abuse reported to Police, including 957 cases of domestic violence.
• 363 cases of rape or sexual abuse reported to RASASC (Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre), of which 23% involved children.

I asked CEC to consider asking Cheshire Police to view domestic abuse and sexual violence crime as part of the hate crime statistics, so that they get recorded in the same way and get the same focus and resources.

I also commented on CEC’s treatment of maternity and parental leave in its workforce information, as it does not even have council-wide data on this topic and seems to be doing the ‘legal minimum’ rather than promoting working practices to support parents. Related to this, the information about how CEC is addressing the gender pay gap was also too vague, especially given that the gap has hardly moved in the years since the statutory reporting began.

Finally, I suggested CEC produce an accessible version of the document itself which is not produced in a way that would be usable by those with visual impairment, and did not contain any information about how to obtain a Braille or accessible version, which seemed a big ‘miss’ for a document that is all about equality and inclusion!

Social Care Workers Campaign

This is not Council-related but I joined a national ‘Protect Them Pay Them’ WEP campaign to support social care workers and value their incredible contribution, which has been highlighted by the current crisis.

My Meeting Attendance

Overall, my Council meeting attendance for the two months has been 100% for all council meetings and working groups, either face-to-face or virtually (12 of 12).

The Town Council’s remit unfortunately does not include things such as Social Services, Health, Transport – these are the domain of Cheshire East, but we can lobby in these areas.

I am a member of eleven other Groups beyond the Council Committees, which meet at regular intervals, typically every couple of months:

Health and Wellbeing Working Group

Anti-Social Behaviour Working Group (Chair)

Congleton Partnership

White Ribbon Working Group

Integrated Transport Working Group

Congleton Green Working Group

Congleton Museum Trust

COVID Community Leaders

COVID Business Regeneration

Congleton Pride Steering Group

Elizabeth’s Group – commemorating Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy

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

Of course, during that time, everything has changed. COVID-19 has come to the UK, and to Congleton. The ‘lockdown’ has happened. Friends, relatives and colleagues have been sick and most have recovered. Some of us have lost loved ones. In these unprecedented times, we have seen great sorrow and great kindness, and learned a new appreciation for our NHS and our front-line workers in social care, healthcare, retail, delivery and our public services.

As Chair of the Community & Environment Committee, I’ve been involved in the COVID-19 Congleton Town Council emergency effort from the start. I have also been moving forward on several other projects.

The Congleton COVID-19 Response

I have been blown away by the response of our Council Officers to this crisis. While some other town and parish councils around the country apparently slowed or stopped work, the Congleton Town Council team has been working at 200% (and round the clock) throughout this period. At the lockdown, in a heartbeat they started working from home and re-planning how to do their work, as well as how to support Congleton through COVID-19. The Officers work behind the scenes and are not often in the public eye but they deserve huge credit for keeping Congleton going and working tirelessly to help residents at this difficult time. They are some of the heroes of the hour. Thank you!

I also have to mention the people of Congleton who have stepped up to volunteer. Shaun Radcliffe immediately got a team together to ensure that emergency food supplies were available those who needed it, and continues to run a food hub. Organisations like the Partnership, the U3A, Community Projects, the Old Sawmill, Ruby’s fund, the churches and many more have joined forces with some Councillors in a ‘Coronavirus Community Team’ to co-ordinate support and ensure it is targeted to those who need it most. Neighbours have shopped for neighbours; volunteers have befriended isolated people with a friendly phone call. I take my hat off to them all. Thanks – you are amazing!

The CTC response to the crisis, and my role in it, is outlined below.

• A telephone helpline that people can call to get initial help and support. We can point callers in the right direction e.g. if they need help with shopping or medication, if they are lonely or if they are concerned about their health. I am one of a team of volunteers on this, and I do 2 ‘shifts’ a week. The number to call is 01260 541 815 and the helpline is open every day from 11am-7pm. This is run by Officer Ruth Burgess, who is also doing her ‘day job’ of managing Streetscape.

• A section of the Congleton Town Council Website including information such as how to get shopping delivered, financial advice, access to doctors and pharmacies. This has been the project of Officers Jackie MacArthur and Martha Hayes with the help of some councillors. I have written some of the content including the Frequently Asked Questions, Getting and Giving Help and the Staying Safe at Home pages.
• Emergency Support co-ordination with Cheshire East’s ‘People Helping People’ service, including food packs for those in greatest need. This has been set up by Chief Officer David McGifford. Town Hall Manager Mark Worthington and team have worked round the clock to ensure people get emergency food and also helped Shaun Radcliffe get his food hub operation going in the Town Hall initially, before it moved to The Vale Club. The Town Hall is also distributing ready meals to people who normally attend the luncheon clubs in Congleton. I have not been involved with this directly, and include it for completeness. I did set up a local online form ‘Neighbours Helping Neighbours’ on the CTC website which is just for Congleton but has added to our list of volunteers.
• Congleton Coronavirus Community Support Group on Facebook.This was set up by two brilliant volunteers, Lisa Brooks and Emma Hall, who subsequently asked the Town Council to administer and moderate it. It now has 2500 members and is a great place for people to ask for and offer help. I’m one of the admins/moderators of this group, and posts are moderated to avoid spam and ensure it is for those with a connection to Congleton.
• Ongoing Communication of the support available through the Congleton Chronicle, a special issue of Bear Necessities, posters around the town and social media posts.
• A Community Leaders Group meets regularly (at first 3 times a week but now weekly) to ensure that efforts are co-ordinated, help and support is properly targeted, and we are planning effectively for the next phase.

Congleton COVID-19 Community Leaders

Council Business During COVID-19

Congleton Town Council had an emergency meeting at the start of the lockdown and agreed that the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and the Chairs of the Committees (Community & Environment, Planning, Town Hall, Assets & Services and Finance & Policy) would meet regularly with some devolved emergency powers to keep Council business going. This has been working with wider Council consultation and decision-making by email. Our Chief Officer, David McGifford, has made this work well, and is now planning how to run all our meetings virtually going forward so we can get back to a regular committee meeting schedule. More on this shortly.

Meanwhile several of the Working Groups that I am involved with have continued to work, using Zoom. I helped them, the Council and several other groups in the town get up to speed with Zoom – it is how I run my own digital business, Kanga Health Ltd.

I’m still open for business!

If you want to chat to me about what I am doing for COVID-19, my work in the Council (or about the Women’s Equality Party), we usually have an informal ‘open house’ in the Young Pretender on the second Monday each month at 7.30pm, and we have replaced this with an informal Zoom meeting. The next one is on the 11thMay – join here.

What I’ve been doing

In addition to the COVID-19 direct support work, I’ve been moving ahead, with colleagues, on a number of initiatives that are priorities in the CTC business plan, as follows:

Domestic Abuse

There is evidence that the lockdown is enabling a domestic abuse disaster. We already had an ‘epidemic’ of domestic abuse in the UK with 2 women murdered a week by a partner or ex-partner, and in the first four weeks of lockdown this rate doubled to 4 a week.

Agencies working in this field nationally are reporting much higher volumes of calls to helplines, and this is reflected in Cheshire East with calls levels up to 3 times the norm for this time of year to the ‘Hub’ number (0300 123 5101). Although calls are already up, experts also expect there to be ‘pent-up demand’ as situations are escalating in some homes but the victims do not feel able to call helplines and cannot easily escape to seek help and advice.

myCWA poster

I have been working on a number of fronts to support this effort. New posters that have been produced by myCWA (our local domestic abuse service provider) will be going up around Congleton. We had a White Ribbon emergency working group meeting (Congleton TC is seeking White Ribbon accreditation), and as a result I wrote a new page for our website – Staying Safe at Home, featuring some new myCWA and White Ribbon support materials to help families avoid crisis.

I hope that this time has helped shine a light on this ongoing crisis in our society and we can ramp up services to support families once the COVID-19 pandemic is over. We were already working to have more services based in Congleton and I hope we can achieve this in the months to come.

Mental Health

Our Congleton Health & Wellbeing Working Group has a priority of supporting adult mental health, and the COVID-19 epidemic has also shone a light on the importance of mental health services and mental wellbeing.

At the start of the crisis we had an emergency H&W Group meeting and generated a number of ideas that have become part of the CTC COVID response, and subsequently we had a session focusing on Mental health with representatives from Visyon and SwANs present.

In the short term we are signposting on our website and social media to the new NHS mental health helpline (0300 303 3972) and other resources, and we have added more information on our Mental Wellbeing Page.

The Working Group would like to support ongoing mental health support for those who need it and we are in discussions with other agencies about this. Longer-term we were already lobbying for a ‘crisis café’ in Congleton and still hope to achieve this.

Childcare

We had an excellent workshop in the Town Hall with some childcare experts – parents, nursery providers, Cllr Suzy Firkin and others – just before the lockdown. It was a very productive session.

The key issues we identified with childcare in Congleton are:

• Cost and flexibility of childcare options provide a barrier to (mostly) women working
• This reduces opportunities for fathers to be more involved parents, mothers (especially single ones) to return to work, and employers to tap into local talent to fill jobs.
• The government allowances are not adequate to cover the costs of providing childcare
• Parents and employers are often unaware of facilities and financial options

This led to a brainstorm of solutions, and we prioritised some ‘quick wins’ and some potentially more ambitious solutions:

• Provide a hub of information for parents, providers and employers
• Council to role-model childcare good practice in our own organisation
• Work with local employers to encourage them to support parents with flexible working and childcare options
• Investigate a Congleton workplace nursery scheme

Further work is proceeding on several of these ideas. Many thanks to the participants for their fabulous contribution to this, and for coming out under the cloud of COVID pre-lockdown (a good deal of hand sanitiser was used!)

The Gender Pay Gap

I’ve done an analysis of the Gender Pay Gap in Cheshire East, based on the statutory reporting that the government requires of organisations greater than 250 employees. Not all companies have reported yet because the government allowed a reporting deadline extension due to COVID-19. You can see a summary in the graph.

Median Gender Pay Gap Cheshire East 2019 (companies reporting on time)

Even with the partial reporting, nothing much has changed year on year. Cheshire East Council itself has a bigger gap than the region in general, and like many big organisations does have a promising-looking strategy to address it. Whether that strategy is being implemented effectively is in question given the (lack of) progress over the past 3 years.

Addressing this is in the CTC Business Plan for Congleton and I intend to continue to meet with local businesses to see what we might put in place. Cllr Suzy Firkin works in this area and, I’m happy to say, is keen to work together with me on this.

As we applaud our ‘front-line’ workers each Thursday I reflect that many of them – especially in social care – are doing a life-saving job for a ridiculously low wage. The gender pay gap is at least in part due to the fact that society does not value this work that is mostly done by women.

Congleton Green

The Congleton Green Working Group is progressing with Zoom meetings, and Barry Speed, one of our members, did a great job starting to estimate CTC’s carbon footprint. At our last meeting we had some advice on measuring the carbon footprint of procurement activities and this needs to be factored in.

Meanwhile we are keen to take Congleton Sustainability Group’s ‘Sustainable Living in Congleton’ (SLIC) training out to all residents as an eLearning course so that people can accelerate their ‘green living’ from home.

I wrote the brief for this and we are currently evaluating vendor proposals.

Integrated Transport

Our Integrated Sustainable Transport Working Group has met to discuss the bus funding that Cheshire East is getting and discuss ideas for Congleton. I put together a list of ideas including increasing the frequency of bus services, running them into the evenings and on Sundays, reducing the cost of fares and marketing buses as a convenient and cheap alternative to car use.

The working group added some builds and I sent the ideas list to Cheshire East as input to their thinking when putting together bus proposals.

The working group has also considered some ideas for moving towards being a ‘Living Streets’ town, and in particular has expressed support for a ‘20’s Plenty’ proposal in Cheshire East, whereby residential streets have a 20mph speed limit. This will come back to our full council for consultation if the idea is accepted at CEC.

Congleton Museum Trust

The Museum’s ‘comms calendar’ that I created kicked off in March with regular posts on ‘heritage days’ through the month. The results were very promising with Facebook page reach up more than 100% and engagement (Likes, Comments, Shares) up 400% month-on-month. The posts also went onto Instagram and Twitter.

Congleton Museum has over 200 followers on Instagram

The lockdown has caused some interruption to this but still some posts are going out and getting good engagement, which is great when people cannot visit the Museum

In addition, I helped the Museum Trust move their meetings to Zoom, so work is continuing behind the scenes, on both acquiring collections and planning museum events for post-lockdown.

Council Communication and Transparency

The Council’s work is driven and approved by a number of large Committees (such as the one I chair – The Community & Environment Committee) which meet publicly and make all the decisions with public and press scrutiny. Often, however, it makes sense to set up smaller working groups to thrash out issues and brainstorm solutions, before coming to the Committee for a decision.

I proposed at the start of 2020 that we should publish working group information on our website together with any notes of the working group meetings. In the past the working groups have reported to the Committees, which are public meetings, but sometimes it can be difficult to find information about them because it is buried in the full Committee proceedings. The Working Groups were also approving their own meeting notes at the next meeting before it went to full Committee which caused a delay, sometimes of months, before that information was made public.

In the new system I proposed, working groups approve their minutes by email and so they can be fully approved at the very next Committee (typically within a month) and then put separately on the website. In addition, I suggested a web page about each Working Group so the public can see what they are discussing and offer to help if they have specific expertise in that area. I am happy to report that these pages are now going live on the website and you can see them here.

My Meeting Attendance

Overall, my meeting attendance for the two months has been 100% for all council meetings and working groups, either face-to-face or virtually (11 of 11). This is in addition to the COVID-19 Community Leaders’ Group which was 3 times a week at first, going down to once a week.

The Town Council’s remit unfortunately does not include things such as Social Services, Health, Transport – these are the domain of Cheshire East, but we can lobby in these areas.

I am a member of nine other Groups beyond the Council Committees, which meet at regular intervals, typically every couple of months:

Health and Wellbeing Working Group

Anti-Social Behaviour Working Group (Chair)

Congleton Partnership

White Ribbon Working Group

Congleton Integrated Transport Working Group

Congleton Green Working Group

Congleton Museum Trust

Congleton Pride Steering Group – Pride has been postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis as you would expect, but will be back!

Elizabeth’s Group – commemorating Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy, Congleton’s Suffragist. We have had to postpone our ‘Elizabeth’s Day’ celebrations at the start of May but Sue Munro, our Chair, has done a fantastic job of keeping the statue campaign alive on social media with videos and other posts.

I am lucky that, through the COVID-19 crisis so far, my ‘day job’ has been extremely busy, because we are a digital business and with a world wide distributed team we we are used to working virtually and using videoconferencing all day. Therefore, for me, life and work goes on, including council work, and I am busier than ever.

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

It has been a busy couple of months. Overall, my meeting attendance for the two months has been 93% for all meetings and working groups (13 of 14) and 83% for statutory meetings (4 of 5). In addition, I’ve attended the Finance & Policy Committee twice, although not a member. Being a Councillor is so much more than meetings though, there is stuff to be done, too!

Tell me what you think

If you want to chat to me about what I am doing in the Council (or about the Women’s Equality Party), we have an informal ‘open house’ in the Young Pretender on the second Monday each month at 7.30pm – the next one is 9th March. If you’d like to talk to me in private, do let me know and we can set that up, but these open ‘chats’ have been working pretty well so far. Please come along.

Did you know that you can also submit a question to any Council or Committee meeting (dates are here), and come along to hear the answer? You have to submit questions a week in advance and can do so here on the Council’s website.

What I’ve been doing

As you know I belong to the Women’s Equality Party and so I’ve been focusing on the things I set out in my manifesto. You can see my priorities on my Cllr page here.

Equality and Inclusion

I am very happy to report that the Finance and Policy Committee of the Council voted unanimously to approve a new Equality and Inclusion Policy for Congleton Town Council which I presented to them on 13th February. At the same meeting the F&P Committee awarded Congleton Pride a grant to support their event in 2020, which I also spoke for.

The new Equality and Inclusion Policy sets out how the councillors and staff will behave with respect to people with different characteristics, including the legal ‘protected characteristics’.

The old Equality Policy met minimum requirements in terms of mentioning the protected characteristics but did not describe many of them in detail. Furthermore, the policy had an emphasis on discrimination and what we ‘will not tolerate’ and protective actions, rather than portraying equality, diversity and inclusion as a positive aspiration that CTC will embrace and promote.

I consulted the Local Government Association guidance, The Cheshire East Equality and Diversity Strategy, national government guidelines, Citizen’s Advice documents and the policies and practice of award-winning local authorities to develop a new Equality and Inclusion Policy for CTC. I worked with Cllr Suzy Firkin, who proof-read and improved the text for me from her experience as a professional equality and diversity consultant. Thanks, Suzy!

The new Policy states “We want Congleton to be a place in which everyone’s hopes and aspirations can be made real. We want to ensure that no one is held back or excluded and that our Town’s success is shared… Our policy sets our vision: recognising the contributions that people from different backgrounds make, actively tackling inequalities and fostering good relationships across our communities.”

The new Equality and Inclusion Policy differs from the old in that it:

• Recognises that including more diverse groups of people will help our decision-making, democracy and the success of our town
• Says that CTC will show leadership in equality and inclusion for Congleton
• Commits to listen to and understand the diverse needs of all people to make our information, services and products more accessible and inclusive
• Sets out the legal protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation, and identifies additional characteristics that we will protect – these are: people in care/with caring responsibilities and people of different socio-economic groups
• Gives examples of ‘types of discrimination’ (from case law) using each of the characteristics.
• Says we are determined to continually measure our performance and improve, and that we will share good equality and inclusion practice.

You can read my report to the Finance & Policy Committee and the new Equality & Inclusion Policy in the meeting papers from 13th February (starting pg. 65).

I was very happy that the Congleton Chronicle put the news of the new Policy on their front page, together with a report about the council’s support for Pride (which I also spoke in favour of). I was less happy that the Chron called me a ‘LibDem Councillor’! My LibDem colleagues (and other friends) enjoyed this apparent switch of allegiance! But the paper did print an apology this week.

Childcare

I have written to the respondents of last year’s Childcare Survey who agreed to work with us further, and invited them to a workshop to discuss childcare challenges and potential solutions for Congleton. This will take place at the Town Hall on 14th March. If you’d like to take part, get in touch!

CTC White Ribbon Campaign

The White Ribbon Campaign works with men and boys to challenge those male cultures that lead to harassment, abuse and violence. It has volunteer ambassadors who act as role models, engaging with other men and boys to call out abusive and sexist behaviour among their peers and promote a culture of equality and respect.

Congleton Town Council has agreed to try to become a White Ribbon Accredited town. Our Working Group consists of 4 councillors (Paul Duffy, Mark Rogan, George Hayes and me), the Council Chief Officer, David McGifford, and two volunteers from the community – Richard Walton and Peter Munro. We have all completed White Ribbon Training so they are now Ambassadors and I’m a Champion, as they call women.

You can join in by making your Promise here: https://www.whiteribbon.org.uk/promise. If you’re involved with boys/men at work or in a social sense such as a sports club – perhaps you’d like to help? Do get in touch.

The next step for our group is training for our council employees and councillors.

Mental Health

The Health and Wellbeing Working Group, of which I’m a member, is prioritising adult mental health services for Congleton – for which we must lobby other agencies like Cheshire East Council and the NHS.

Cllr Mark Rogan and I visited ‘Number 71’, a new ‘Crisis Café’ in Chester to learn how it is set up and the services it provides. It is intended to be a place to go if you are in mental health crisis, instead of going to A&E. There will be qualified mental health professionals on-hand, and the facilities include consulting rooms, group-work rooms, activities and areas to relax and have a coffee and chat.

This is the sort of facility we want in Congleton. We have been told the Clinical Commissioning Group is rolling these out all over Cheshire so we will continue to lobby for Congleton to be the first in Cheshire East!

Some councillor colleagues met with Mentell who provide a service primarily for men with mental health problems. There is Cheshire East funding to support and train facilitators of mental health peer groups, so we will connect this with people like Mentell who have set up groups in Congleton.

Antisocial Behaviour

I was pleased to learn via this Working Group that for the last 2 months of 2019, antisocial behaviour was down 50% year-on-year. Cllr Robert Moreton has been working with local venues and Bamboogy have agreed to run an ‘under-18s night’ on 9thApril to give young people something to do in town. We will see how this is received.

Support for families affected by Domestic Abuse

We are continuing to support Cheshire Without Abuse in their efforts to get funding for a domestic abuse hub in Congleton and several bids are underway.

Street Naming

We were asked last year to suggest street names for a new development off Back Lane, Congleton. Since I believe more than 90% of Congleton’s streets named after people are named after men, I suggested 5 names of prominent Congleton women, and I’m delighted to say these have all been accepted as new street names! they are:

• Ormiston Way (Dr Margaret Ormiston, who set up Quinta hospital for wounded soldiers)
• Elmy Avenue (Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy – suffragist, women’s rights campaigner)
• Turner Drive (Theodora Turner OBE, President of RCN)
• Williamson Close (Margaret Williamson MBE, local Councillor and life-long volunteer)
• Burgess Place (Jessie Burgess, first woman mayor of Congleton, 1945-47)

Environment and Sustainability

The Congleton Green Working Group has got going and has had a couple of meetings, the first one with a Cheshire East Officer who explained where things are up to with the CEC Environment Strategy.

It became clear that they are not going fast enough for us, so two of the Congleton Green Members (Barry Speed and Mark Rogan) will be calculating CTC’s own carbon footprint and from this we will set some clear objectives for our group.

The objectives will not be limited to carbon footprint – we will address all areas of sustainability including waste, plastics, consumption etc.

Plastic Free Congleton (Heather Seddon) came to request the formal support of Congleton Town Council, and I spoke in support of that group, which is doing great work.

I welcome the Young Pretender’s initiative to show a ‘climate change’ movie night each month – a great idea. This week I saw ‘Chasing Ice’ which was fascinating and sobering.

The Congleton tree planting initiative continues. I haven’t been out for a planting day yet, but intend to! If you’d like to join in you can learn more here.

Integrated Transport

Our Integrated Sustainable Transport Working Group has met and started to set its objectives. I have been looking into the new funding for bus services that is coming from central government. Cheshire East will be entitled to some of this assuming it puts together a bid, which I’m sure it will as Craig Browne of CEC states they will in this week’s Congleton Chronicle.

I am also interested in the idea of the ‘All-Electric Bus Town’ which is a large government fund for a single town to go to all-electric buses. CEC have not committed to bidding for this but I believe Congleton could be a contender so will continue to pursue it. If you’re a transport or bus expert and would like to help, please get in touch!

Museum Trust

I met with the Congleton Museum team and Cllr Suzy Firkin to discuss how to raise awareness and get more people coming to the museum. I put together a ‘comms calendar’ so we can regularly tweet and post about ‘heritage days’ and other important dates, and share images of our artefacts. This will start in March, in addition to the usual museum communications, so see if you notice the museum is more visible in your social media feeds!

Other Activities

I got trained as a Dementia Friend, along with other Councillors. If you’d like to be trained (it only takes an hour) please contact Dementia Friendly Congleton.

I wrote yet again to Cheshire East officers to ask what is being done about the bins on Sheldon Avenue, but did not get a response.

I corresponded with the residents of Bath Vale about a dispute with the developers and CEC because their road has not been finished off properly and is full of potholes.

With council colleagues I attended a meeting with Canalside Radio to discuss their increased broadcasting for/in Congleton and the potential for a ‘Congleton App’. More on this soon!

Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy

I’m a member of Elizabeth’s Group, which is raising awareness of suffragist Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy and all the great work she did in/from Congleton for women’s and girls’ rights.

I attended the Elizabeth’s Group fundraiser ceilidh, which was great fun. I also helped out at the Olive & Stitch market in January. Elizabeth’s Group is planning to launch a new Heritage Trail about Elizabeth on 2nd May and has lots of other activities planned for 2020.

Being a Councillor in Congleton

Almost every Thursday is a Council meeting, either the full Council, the Planning Committee (which is all councillors) or one of the other Committees. I am Chair of the Community & Environment Committee which has a large remit.

We also have regular meetings of the Chairs of the various Committees.

In addition, I am a member of nine other Groups which meet at regular intervals, typically every couple of months, and do other work in between meetings of course:

• Health and Wellbeing Working Group
• Anti-Social Behaviour Working Group (Chair)
• Congleton Partnership
• White Ribbon Working Group
• Congleton Sustainable Transport Working Group
• Congleton Green Working Group
• Congleton Museum Trust
• Congleton Pride Steering Group
• Elizabeth’s Group

The Town Council’s remit unfortunately does not include things such as Social Services, Health, Transport – these are the domain of Cheshire East, but we can lobby in these areas.

As 2019 draws to a close, it has given me a chance to reflect a bit on what I have done since the election in May. I have been involved in some important initiatives, but there is a lot to do in 2020 to finish the initiatives we have started, as well as starting new ones that are in the priority list. Still, some progress has been made.

I am glad that domestic abuse and violence against women and girls have been addressed several times in Council, and made it to the front page of the Congleton Chronicle. We have good start to The CTC Climate Emergency initiative. I am pleased with some excellent priorities in our new Business Plan (see below). I have got to know my fellow Councillors better and, although we don’t agree on everything, they are for the most part hard working and dedicated to making a difference in Congleton.

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

Tell me what you think

If you want to chat to me about what I am doing in the Council or indeed about the Women’s Equality Party, we have an informal ‘open house’ in the Young Pretender on the second Monday each month at 7.30pm – the next one is 13th January. If you’d like to talk to me in private, do let me know and we can set that up, but these open ‘chats’ have been working pretty well so far. Please come along.

Did you know that you can also submit a question to any Council or Committee meeting (dates are here), and come along to hear the answer? You have to submit questions a week in advance and can do so here on the Council’s website.

What I’ve been doing

As you know I belong to the Women’s Equality Party and so I’ve been focusing on the things I set out in my manifesto before the election. You can see my priorities on my Cllr page here.

The Town Council’s remit unfortunately does not include things such as Social Services, Health, Transport – these are the domain of Cheshire East, but we can lobby for change in these areas.

Congleton Town Council Business Plan

For the last couple of months, I have been working with fellow Councillors developing the new Congleton Town Council Business Plan for 2020-23. This is important as it sets out the priorities, strategic objectives and high-level action plan for the next three-and-a-half years, and summarises how the Council would like to improve Congleton for everyone, based on what we have learned from people who live here, both formally and informally. You can read the entire Business Plan on the Council’s Website.

I am very happy that the Council voted to appoint a new officer to oversee and manage some of these priorities. Sustainability will require some focused effort, especially as we assess our current carbon footprint, and we will need resource to support many other initiatives too.

The strategic objectives in the plan are as follows:

1. Ensure growth of the town is matched by adequate services and infrastructure
2. Ensure transport infrastructure is integrated and sustainable
3. Reduce economic, social and health inequalities within our community
4. Ensure that the town centre is fit for 21st century
5. Greater promotion of Congleton as a place to work, live, visit and do business
6. Congleton Town Council will be sustainable and carbon neutral
7. Ensure we effectively communicate with all sections of our community
8. Ensure a high standard of operational quality and asset management

All of them are very important to me and indeed the whole council was aligned around them. The strengthened focus on equality and sustainability is particularly welcome to me. I will expand on these below.

Equality and Inclusion

I am very happy to report that the new Business Plan has equality as a strategic objective:

Strategic Objective 3: Reduce economic, social and health inequalities within our community

I was on the sub-team that developed this objective with several councillors from all parties and independents, and I’m delighted to report that it has some promising actions behind it. Many of these will require working with other agencies as they are not CTC-owned services, but we can certainly lobby and influence.

The details behind this strategic objective are as follows:

GOAL:

By 2025, Congleton will have measurably ‘narrowed the outcomes gap’ for members of our community so that Congleton has some of the best social, economic and health mobility indicators of any Cheshire East town.

Actions and activities:

3.1. To establish a benchmark for social, economic and health inequalities

3.2. To strive for first rate mental health services for our town and surrounding areas

3.3. Promote existing services and support the development of additional support for families and young people

3.4. Improve provision and enable access to affordable childcare for people in Congleton

3.5. Support the requirements of an ageing population

3.6. Support the requirements of people with disabilities or complex needs

3.7. Promote the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce

3.8. Support and promote initiatives to close the Gender Pay Gap in Congleton

3.9. Work to increase the provision of social housing in Congleton

3.10. Empower and promote agencies supporting those living with addiction and abuse e.g. of drugs, alcohol, gambling

3.11. Promote initiatives to improve the health and wellbeing of people in Congleton

As you know from my previous blogs, I am already working with council colleagues on several of these:

Support for families affected by Domestic Abuse

Following the presentation of Saskia Richie, the CEO of Cheshire Without Abuse, and the Council’s unanimous vote to support a Domestic Abuse Support Hub in Congleton, I have been working with Saskia and others to try to source funding for this Hub. It has been agreed that one of our Connected Communities venues may well be available, and we need the funding to staff it. This is a work in progress and we have applied to a number of funding sources. If you know of any potential funds we can apply to, please let me know! Thank you.

CTC White Ribbon Campaign

The White Ribbon Campaign works with men and boys to challenge those male cultures that lead to harassment, abuse and violence. It has volunteer ambassadors who act as role models, engaging with other men and boys to call out abusive and sexist behaviour among their peers and promote a culture of equality and respect.

Congleton Town Council has agreed to try to become a White Ribbon Accredited town. We ran another White Ribbon stall at the Christmas Lights Switch on in support of White Ribbon Day, 25th November. Sadly, Christmas time is a peak time for domestic abuse, and we had over 70 more people come to make the White Ribbon Promise not to commit, condone or ignore male violence against women. If we missed you on the day, you can make the promise online here – please do so: https://www.whiteribbon.org.uk/promise

Mental Health

The Health and Wellbeing Working Group, of which I’m a member, met with the Cheshire Clinical Commissioners and learned that adult mental health support is indeed being stepped up across the county with national support, including the idea of ‘hubs’ in each town – which is what we want for Congleton! We will lobby for Congleton to be one of the first. In addition, Cllr Suzy Firkin from that group has been talking to Visyon to see what can be done about getting their service extended to 25-year-olds, as previously. They currently only provide services for up to age 18 and would very much like to extend this, subject to funding.

I went along to meet the ‘Nailed It’ Group, set up by Gaz Lewis in Congleton as a peer-support mental health group. An excellent initiative, and I invited Gaz to come and meet our Working Group in the New Year to see how we might collaborate.

A page of the CTC Website is called ‘Where to go for Support’ and we plan to continue to update this page with local groups and services specifically for Congleton.

Environment and Sustainability

The new Business Plan has the following objective which I’m happy to say is much stronger on climate change and sustainability than the previous plan:

Strategic objective 6: Congleton Town Council will be sustainable and carbon neutral

GOAL:

Congleton Town Council to reduce its carbon footprint to zero by 2025 and work towards creating a sustainable and carbon neutral town.

ACTIONS/ACTIVITIES:

6.1. Reduce the carbon footprint for the Town Council’s assets and Streetscape service

6.2. Through partnership working and engagement with the adjoining parishes plant and maintain 30,000 new trees by 2024

6.3. Review existing facilities for recycling and develop new where necessary

6.4. Develop and deliver a campaign(s) promoting the need and facilities for recycling

6.5. Create awareness of training opportunities

6.6. Maximise opportunities for the retention and enhancement of Green Open Spaces

6.7. Support the development and delivery of the Congleton Sustainability Group’s initiatives

6.8. To work with partners on recycling initiatives

6.9. To improve the air quality in Congleton

As I have previously informed you, CTC has declared a Climate Emergency and set up a Working Group with Cllr Margaret Gartside in the Chair. I’m on this group as the Community & Environment Committee Chair. We have had our first Green Fayre and there is already a tree-planting initiative underway, supported by Congleton Partnership. More on this will be communicated in January.

We had a presentation on Streetscape which I found very interesting, especially the information about more sustainable planting and management. I made notes, some of which made it onto the new page about Streetscape on the Council Website.

The Congleton Green Working Group – consisting of Councillors (including me) and experts from the community – will meet early in the New Year to agree on next steps.

Integrated Transport

The CTC Business Plan has this objective which I am very happy with:

Strategic Objective 2: Ensure transport infrastructure is integrated and sustainable

GOAL:

A sustainable, flexible transport system that meets the needs of all residents and creates a cleaner, better connected Congleton by 2030.

ACTIONS/ACTIVITIES:

2.1 Development of a Sustainable Transport Masterplan for Congleton and surrounding Parishes

2.2 Promote existing infrastructure for sustainable modes of transport

2.3 Review current bus and train provision and develop proposals with CEC for integration

2.4 Review provision for car drivers including electric charging points and Car Parking strategy

2.5 Safety campaign and educational programme for motorists, walkers, cyclists and wheelchair users

2.6 Reinforcing the need for high quality transport plans from developers of new housing

This huge subject has been discussed several times in Council, especially in the Planning Committee in relation to transport provision for all the new housing in and around Congleton. I and other councillors have already given input to the Cheshire East Transport Strategy and will continue to work with the Transport Strategy Group led by Cllr Suzy Akers-Smith, to achieve these ambitious goals.

Being a Councillor in Congleton

Almost every Thursday is a Council meeting, either the full Council, the Planning Committee (which is all councillors) or one of the other Committees. I am Chair of the Community & Environment Committee which has a large remit. We have voted in the last two months to take the ‘Services’ part of this committee away and added it to the Town Centre & Assets Committee – so that they look after all our service provision, including, now, the Streetscape service. However, the C&E Committee will still retain an interest in Streetscape from a sustainability point of view.

We also have regular meetings of the Chairs of the various Committees.

In addition, I am now a member of nine other Groups which meet at regular intervals, typically every couple of months, and do other work in between meetings of course:

· Health and Wellbeing Working Group

· War Memorial Hospital Cross-Party Group

· Anti-Social Behaviour Working Group (Chair)

· Congleton Partnership

· White Ribbon Working Group

· Congleton Sustainable Transport Working Group

· Congleton Green Working Group

· Congleton Museum Trust

· Congleton Pride Steering Group

For those interested in statistics, of the statutory meetings I am expected to attend, in the 6 weeks since my last blog I have attended 86% of them (6 out of 7).

Other Activities

In addition to the above I have been working with Council Officers on communications and marketing. I believe the team already does a great job, but there are always opportunities to keep everyone better informed and involved, to drive more transparency and hopefully get more people participating in the life of the town. As a marketer and digital specialist, I can help out so have been providing a bit of time towards this, and will continue to do so.

I have joined the Congleton Pride Steering Group and attended two meetings, discussing the date (18th July) and location (town centre) of the Pride event in 2020. I can’t wait to do more with this enthusiastic and hard-working team.

Aside from the Council, I have continued to be part of Elizabeth’s Group which is campaigning for a statue of suffragist Elizabeth Wolstenholme-Elmy in Congleton. We have recently launched the website www.elizabethelmy.comand are planning a heritage trail about Elizabeth around the town.

As you may know (and this is nothing to do with the Council) in my capacity as Women’s Equality Party Branch Co-Leader in Cheshire East, I also helped to run a General Election Hustings in Congleton Town Hall, which the WEP paid for, with the support of Jeremy Condliffe and the Congleton Chronicle. It was a very interesting debate, the outcome of which I’m sure you are now aware of.

I was particularly pleased that at the hustings all five Congleton parliamentary candidates, including Fiona Bruce, signed the Women’s Equality Party pledge to amend the Recall Act so that MPs found guilty of sexual harassment, abuse and bullying can be removed by their constituents. I will be writing to Mrs Bruce in the New Year to ask how this is progressing.