Congleton Partnership held an Executive Meeting on 13.06.23, you can view the minutes HERE.
Peter chaired the meeting and welcomed everyone to the group. Anna Maluk was welcomed to the meeting. Anna is the assistant manager at Congleton Museum.
Minutes were approved from the last meeting on 21.02.23
Outstanding Actions:
• The rowan trees planted on Mountbatten way are not thriving, some of the planters are broken. The trees can be replanted at another site and hopefully saved. Patti is looking into, consulting with Ruth Burgess. This is £3214 left in the Public Realm budget for replacement planters/trees. UPDATE 12.06.23 – Some of the trees & their boxes have been brought to the park, the trees have been given to a local farmer who has replanted them. Boxes need to be refurbished before anything can be planted in them. The rest of the trees & boxes will be brought in during the autumn when the trees can be replanted locally.
• Inclusive Roundabout – A photo call was arranged on the 11th of May, thanks to all those who attended. The press release was sent to the local press.
• Tea Dance – The Senior forum has proposed to hold an afternoon tea for the Kings Coronation but due to local elections and other committed events this didn’t go ahead. We will look to when else we can hold the event.
• Health and Wellness Fayre – Held on the 28th of March at Congleton Town Hall, 40 exhibitors and over 200 people visited the event. Great feedback from all who attended. Having the breakout area in Bluey’s and refreshments worked out well.
New Projects
Community Land Share Project –
Congleton Partnership was successful in applying for the Cost-of-Living Grants to encourage growing community food total £9580.
Land sharing project which grows local, fresh, sustainable food for the community. Whilst there are approx. 300,000 allotments across the UK, land set aside for plots has declined by 70% since their peak with waiting lists as long as 40 years in some parts.
There are waiting lists in Congleton for the limited supply of available allotment space, and there are homeowners/tenants who have gardens they struggle to maintain or would be happy to utilise their land to grow food. We will provide a match-making service between growers and garden owners with all the necessary tenancy agreements, land usage, visiting rights and safeguarding policies in place to protect both parties.
£1000 from the grant was reserved to develop the community plot at Hilary Ave in Partnership with Bromley Bloomers. A planting day was organised for 17th June from 11 am. 4 raised planters were planted with flowers and 4 lower planters were planted with vegetables/herbs.
The depth of soil wasn’t enough on the main growing beds, these need more soil ordered and maybe edged before plants can go in. Bromley Bloomers to action.