Kellie Hinton (South Ward)
Town Council Service 2011 – present
District Council Service 2019 – present
Committees & Current Positions Held
Deputy Mayor of Henley – 2023-2024
Recreation & Amenities (Vice-Chair), Town & Community, Henley in Bloom (VC), Events (VC), Signage Working Group, Townlands Steering Group, Open Spaces. (HTC)
Licensing Acts and General Licensing (Chair), Community Grants (SODC)
Previous positions held
Mayor of Henley – 2017-2018
Chair of R&A and Henley in Bloom, Vice-Chair of T&C
Bio
Kellie was born and raised in Henley and lives in the town with her family. When she is not doing her Council work or replying to people on social media, Kellie is most likely spending time with the kids and Ben or playing with her many hamsters!
Kellie was HRG and Henley’s youngest ever Mayor at the age of thirty-one. That same year she was voted ‘Young Councillor of The Year’ by the National Association of Local Councils. Kellie recently became the first HRG Councillor to chair SODC’s Licensing Committee.
Kellie is largely known for her work with Park Services and the R&A committee, chairing it for years. Her passion is making sure Henley has the best facilities and open spaces. Kellie also attends and chairs many taxi panel hearings as a District Councillor.
Ask Kellie
How is being a District Councillor different to being a Town Councillor?
My role as a district councillor feels like it’s a bigger responsibility. When I am chairing a taxi panel, for example, we are directly deciding on somebody’s livelihood. Obviously, travel is also an element – I’ve never spent so much time in other parts of the district, although the covid pandemic did move a lot of meetings and panel hearings online.
What are you most excited about working on recently?
I have put a proposal forward to the Recreation and Amenities committee so that we can build some steps into the river at the top end of Marsh Meadows. I am really keen to progress this and make the river more accessible on this stretch.
Why is HRG important to you?
Personally, it’s been important to me because of the people and their support over the years. I’ve had some of my biggest highs and lows over the past decade with these colleagues and made true best friends in some of them.
As a councillor and a resident of the town, it’s important to me that we keep our town free of national party politics and that decisions for our town are made for local people, by local people.