We are delighted to announce that the Mayor’s Charity Quiz night raised £1546.35 for the Mayor’s chosen charity, Woodley Lunch Bunch

Woodley Town Mayor, Cllr Janet Sartorel, hosted a Charity Quiz night, along with Woodley Town Deputy Mayor, Cllr Juliet Anderson on Friday at the Oakwood Centre.

The event was compered by Juliet, and involved a fun mix of games and a main quiz, which concluded with an interesting round named “Ikea or cheese?’.

Woodley Lunch Bunch

The bar was run by team members of Woodley Lunch Bunch, with additional support on score keeping. A spokesperson for the charity commented: “We are so grateful for the Mayor’s support. We ran the bar and helped with the scoring and had a lovely evening. Thank you to everyone who came and helped to raise such a fantastic amount.”

Woodley Lunch Bunch is a local charity which delivers lunches to children in Woodley. You can find out more about the charity HERE.

Raffle

The Mayor also ran a raffle with prizes ranging from bottles of champagne, chocolates, candles to vouchers for meals out. Janet would like to thank all the local businesses who generously donated prizes and to everyone who bought a raffle ticket on the night.

Winners

The Deputy Town Mayor produced a challenging and fun quiz, with additional games, including a ‘Heads or Tails’ round. The overall winners of the Quiz were the Valiant Vikings, closely followed by the Quiz & Tonics. The Valiant Vikings were presented with chocolate lollies by Janet.

Woodley Town Mayor

Janet thanked everyone on the evening for their generosity to help raise such an outstanding amount. “I would like to thank everyone here for attending the quiz, buying raffle tickets and spending money at the bar. I am delighted to raise much needed funds for Woodley Lunch Bunch, who do such a wonderful service for children in Woodley. I would also like to thank the staff at Woodley Town Council for putting the event together, as well as Juliet for being such a great quiz host.”

Woodley Town Mayor, Cllr Janet Sartorel, attended the Finale Concert of the Woodley Festival of Music & Arts and was presented with a beautiful bouquet of flowers to thank the Mayor, Woodley Town Council and the staff at the Oakwood Centre for their support each year.

Fiona Fisher, chairperson of Woodley Festival of Music & Art gave huge thanks for the facilities of the  Oakwood Centre and help from staff. She also said that the grant given by the Council goes a long way towards keeping the event going. 

Cllr Janet Sartorel is picture with Ann & Rod Manning who have sponsored the festival for many years. 

Progress to install CCTV in Woodley Town Centre continues with new fund donation

Woodley Town Centre Partnership has received a further £10,000 from the Police Community Fund, to add to the £5,000 they received in 2023. The money will go towards a CCTV system for the Town Centre. 

Wokingham Borough Council has also recently agreed to contribute £15,000, and Woodley Town Council has now adopted the project and is currently inviting tenders. 

Woodley Town Centre Partnership has already met with several bidders and is planning to work quickly to get an effective system installed.

Town Centre Manager, Brian Fennelly, said: “We are very grateful to have received this further contribution from the Police Community Fund. Wokingham Borough Council’s contribution is also very much appreciated, and it is very encouraging to have these two important stakeholders making an active contribution to Woodley Town Centre. Woodley Town Council has been fully supportive of the project all along and the Town Centre Partnership look forward to working with the Council at pace to get an effective CCTV system installed.”

CCTV Survey

The Town Council would like residents’ views on the potential installation of CCTV in the town centre. If you would like to feed into this, please take part in this short 1 minute survey.

We thank you for your time.

Town Centre Manager, Brian Fennelly, receiving a cheque from Matthew Barber, Police & Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley

Four Woodley Primary Schools took to the kitchen recently for the annual Woodley Schools’ Bake-Off competition, held at The Bulmershe School

Budding bakers from Beechwood, Highwood, St Dominic Savio and Willow Bank Junior schools designed showstopping cakes at home and school, then came together to bake and decorate them from scratch.  The Year 5 children worked in pairs, supported by some fantastic Year 9 student Transition Leaders, and they showed great teamwork and perseverance, adapting to deal with any unforeseen issues. 

The children also undertook an icing task, set by Nicola Jolliffe from the Jolliffe Cake Company, where they created beautiful icing roses.  

Winners

Woodley Town Deputy Mayor, Cllr Juliet Anderson, Cllr Keith Baker and Nicola Jolliffe judged the competition and chose a pair from St Dominic Savio School as the overall winners with their wonderful creation, Pollination Sensation. However, they all agreed it was a very difficult decision as the standard of all the cakes was so high again this year.

School Challenge Days

The Bake-Off is one of four Challenge Days that Woodley’s local schools take part in throughout the year. They are designed to give children the opportunity to work with pupils from other schools on tasks that they do not get the chance to do in school.  

Woodley Town Council recently awarded a grant to the schools to cover the costs of the projects, for example, the ingredients for this recent Bake-Off, which enables the schools to take part.  

The Schools’ Cluster team look forward to being able to use this grant to provide more Challenge Days, so that children in all year groups can benefit.

Woodley Town Council awards Community and Youth Grants

At the recent Strategy & Resources Committee Meeting, on 23 January, the following grants were awarded by Woodley Town Council.

Community Grants

Friends of Woodford Park – £350 – To pay towards the cost of restocking shrubs and plants in the flower beds in Woodford Park. 

You can find out more about our partnership with the Friends of Woodford Park on our page about Woodford Park.

Youth Grants

• Arc Youth Counselling – £5000 – To pay towards the cost of providing ARC’s youth counselling service in schools.

• Promise Inclusion Limited – £2500 – To support the service, providing support for children and adults with learning disabilities and / or autism.

• First Days’ Children’s Charity – £5100 – To pay towards the charity’s costs to provide Woodley Toy Library, a mobile outreach service, one to one coaching, and access to essential items for vulnerable families.

• Home-Start Wokingham District – £5660 – To help fund the charity’s home visiting support service for vulnerable, disadvantaged and isolated families.

• Parenting Special Children – £2500 – To pay towards the charity’s provision of specialist support services to vulnerable families of children and young people with special educational needs, disabilities, and early life trauma. 

Our Grants

During the current financial year, Woodley Town Council has allocated funds to make the following grants:

• Community Grants – Up to £250, for community groups / organisations either based in or supporting residents of Woodley, to fund one-off costs such as specific projects or purchases.
• Individual Grants – Up to £100, for individuals under the age of 21 living in Woodley, excelling in sporting or cultural activities, to fund representation at county, regional, national or international events.
• Youth Grants – Up to £3,000 (although exceptions will be considered), for organisations, to assist and facilitate projects that reach, engage and support young people (those aged 21 and under) in Woodley.
• Annual Grants – No cap, for fully constituted ‘not for profit’ organisations either based in or supporting residents of Woodley, to fund annual running costs or specific projects.

Should you wish to apply for a grant, then full guidelines and application forms can be found on our Grants Page.