Society Report to the Annual Meeting of Henley Town Council – March 2026

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REPORT TO THE ANNUAL MEETING OF HENLEY TOWN COUNCIL 2026

Again this year we can claim to have had another successful year 2025 with an increased year-end financial balance, and a maintenance of our membership levels.

We have concentrated on our social media postings during the year and now have in excess of 2,000 ‘followers’ on Facebook and Instagram. In addition our website receives over 700 page views per week.

The Committee has enjoyed, once again, having the full support of the membership without which our efforts would be pointless. We thank them all.

We have also enjoyed a close relationship with Henley Town Council with regular meetings with the Mayor, Town Centre Manager and Town Clerk to discuss matters of mutual interest.

The pattern of our programmes has remained consistent with talks, visits to places of interest and social events all the while raising funds to reinvest into the town.

Our work around the town has centred on our communications, jointly with Henley Town Council, to retailers encourage them to more efficiently deal with their commercial waste and to ‘hide’ their wheelie bins such that they are not on display 24/7.

We planted ‘Rupert’s Elm’ at Northfield End and the tree seems to be thriving, and placed a plaque on Speaker’s House commemorating the birthplace of William Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons during the long Parliament. We were fortunate to get the current Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle to unveil the plaque.

We also undertook the cleaning of all the road signs around Henley, some 200, a task completed in time for the Royal Regatta, which helped to show the town in a good light.

In addition we arranged an interesting visit to Bletchley Park for members, heard talks by speakers from the River and Rowing Museum and the Thames Valley Police Commissioner.

In addition members enjoyed a fabulous Christmas  lunch at Henley Rugby Club, and we plan to continue our good works for Henley in a similar way in 2026.

The Executive Committee

March 2026