Campaigners’ anger over plan to scrap Chester town twinning

DETERMINED campaigners are gearing up for a fight as council leaders prepare to end twinning with foreign towns by next year.

Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) says it will scrap the “wasteful” scheme in the face of budget cuts and staff redundancies.But enthusiasts claim town twinning, which has been in place since the end of the Second World War, has led to cultural enrichment and economic benefits for the region.

The CWaC executive took the decision after stating there should be a “new way of managing the council’s policy on international co-operation”.

However, the council will allow each former twinning association to continue through to 2010, granting them each £2,000 to do so.


Chester is twinned with Sens in France, Lorrach in Germany and Seneghalia in Italy. Vale Royal is linked with Rychnov-nad-Kneznou District in the Czech Republic and Ellesmere Port with Reutlingen in Germany.

Chester International Links Association (CILA), which manages the twinning scheme, receives a large chunk of its funding from CWaC.

Former city council leader and president of the Walled Town Friendship Circle, John Price, said it would be very difficult for the new authority to push Chester as a must-see European destination by 2015 if it abruptly ended its relationships with its twin towns.

He said: “This takes no account of what the people actually want.

This brings in social, cultural and economic benefits. For example, last year there were youth games in all four towns.”

He added there were various partnerships set up, like international police conferences and art exhibitions.

“How are people around the world going to regard CWaC after they have discarded their partners without so much as a consultation?” he said.

Chester and Palestine Exchanges (CAPE) chairman Rod Cox said most of the concerns seemed to be over European partners in the twinning agenda, but residents should be reminded there were also cities in other regions linked up with West Cheshire.

Chester has a “friendship agreement” set up with Jericho, Palestine.Rod, who has helped traumatised war victims in Palestine, said: “There are lots of practical and real benefits that come out of twinning partnerships.

“Members are now involved in a project called ‘Portico’, which is about the preservation of historic buildings and from which Chester stands to benefit.

CILA won’t give up.”A CWaC spokesman said there would be a new “international framework” drawn up in October to concentrate on research, manufacturing, finance and knowledge-based businesses such as chemical and life sciences, rural and waterway development, food and drink, tourism and regeneration.

Cllr Herbert Manley, who will chair the International Framework Group, said: “The traditional twinning links that the former district council established did good work in the area of cultural and civic exchanges.

“However, we now have one large strategic authority which needs to compete and promote CWaC’s interests on a larger stage and to that end we should focus our attention on the trade, investment and local economic benefits of international networking, not just in Europe, but also with the emerging economies of the Far East.”