Mayor making to be online and in person );
THIS year’s Henley mayor-making ceremony will be held in person and online on Monday.
Current Mayor Ken Arlett will step down after two years in the post, having agreed to stay on for an extra year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Town councillors will elect the new mayor and deputy mayor following proposals and speeches in favour of the candidates.
Councillors Sarah Miller and Michelle Thomas are mayor-elect and deputy mayor-elect respectively.
The event will be held in the Queen Elizabeth II hall at the town hall from 11.30am and audience numbers have been reduced in line with current covid restrictions to ensure social distancing.
Pink and purple summer baskets to celebrate coming out of lockdown );
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A TOTAL of 163 summer hanging baskets have now been sold to residents and businesses in Henley.
Henley in Bloom launched its annual campaign, which is supported by the
Henley Standard, three weeks ago.
Windowflowers, of Burnham, supplies the baskets and is now planting them up ready for installation in late May and early June. The company will also maintain them all summer.
This year’s plants will include pink and purple fuchsias, verbenas, pelargoniums, surfinias, petunias and calocephalus.
The colours are designed to celebrate life returning to normal after the coronavirus pandemic.
Graffiti vandal’s spree branded ‘pathetic’ );
A VANDAL who went on a spree across Henley has been branded “pathetic”.
Town councillor Donna Crook was speaking after street furniture and shop windows were all daubed with graffiti.
A wall of the Henley 60+ Social Club, where older residents meet up, was also spray painted.
Tags and slogans, some using foul and homophobic language, appeared overnight on Wednesday last week.
They were drawn in various colours including red, silver, black and blue and included the nickname “Kazo” as well as insults directed at others who had left tags previously.
Cllr Crook has been out since then scrubbing off the graffiti from bus stops in Hart Street and Reading Road, noticeboards and planters in Market Place and off Greys Road and from the telephone cable cabinet in Station Road.
Leads may have to be used by river );
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DOG owners might have to keep their pets on a lead at all times while walking in Mill Meadows in Henley.
The town council, which is responsible for the riverside beauty spot, is considering introducing the rule as part of a new policy for users of all the green spaces it manages.
It was proposed by Mayor Ken Arlett at a meeting of the council’s recreation and amenities committee.
He said: “We’ve all seen owners letting dogs go wherever they like to do their business so I’d like them to stay on a lead until they get further along the towpath to Marsh Meadows. There are so many kids playing on Mill Meadows and there’s nothing worse than having them come across dog mess.”
Slow worms in way of homes );
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SLOW worms living on a field in Henley may be relocated to make way for new homes.
The town council, which owns a grass verge that would serve as the entrance to a proposed development off Fair Mile, has agreed in principle to move the creatures to a new home under a deal with developer Thames Properties.
If the company is given the go-ahead to build 52 houses and 20 flats on the 4.6-hectare field, the council could sell the verge, or “ransom strip”.
Lawyers for both sides have been in negotiations but must wait for South Oxfordshire District Council, the planning authority, to make a decision on the firm’s application.