Agenda and minutes

            Resolved – That Councillor Doreen Dart be Chair of the Town Twinning Network until December 2010.

(Councillor Dart took the Chair)

            Resolved – That Andy Lane be Vice-Chair of the Town Twinning Network until December 2010.

Members are reminded that at the start of the meeting they should declare any known interests in any matter to be considered, and also during the meeting if it becomes apparent that they have an interest in the matters being discussed.

The Chair reminded Members of the need to declare any known interests in any matters to be considered at the meeting.  No declarations were made.

See explanatory note below.  Please phone the Committee Officer whose name and number appears at the top of this agenda if you need further guidance.

            No public questions were received during the meeting.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 30^th September 2009.

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 30^th September 2009, be confirmed as a correct record.

Matters Arising

Minute 26 (Application for a Town Twinning Grant – Torun and Swindon Twinning Enterprise) – the clerk to the Network confirmed that the grants team were satisfied with the accounts provided by TASTE and that their grant application was currently being circulated for approval.  With regards to the original criteria set when the twinning grants budget was established, it was agreed that the Chair and the clerk would meet with the Director of Law and Democratic Services and that a report would be presented at the next Town Twinning Network meeting outlining the current budget provision and criteria for Town Twinning grants. 

            The Network considered (a) a report of the Director of Law and Democratic Services listing the Town Twinning Associations and Links in and around Swindon and (b) the following verbal reports from the Town Twinning Associations and Links:

Potential Link with Mauritius

The Chair read out a letter that she had received from the Mayor of Mauritius offering thanks for the hospitality that he received during his recent visit to Swindon.  Nazma Ramruttun was currently visiting Mauritius and would take best wishes from the people of Swindon back to the Mayor of Mauritius.

Potential Link with Somaliland

Haasan Nur attended the meeting to talk about a potential link between Swindon and Somaliland, particularly as there were a large number of people living in Swindon who were from Somaliland, in particular from Salahley.  He had met with the Mayor from Salahley who had expressed an interest in developing a link with Swindon and they had already collected £15K to help build a school there.  The group were also keen to build a clinic there and were already raising money for this initiative.  Haasan would be meeting with the Mayor again in April and felt that it would be useful to have an exchange of letters of friendship between the two towns.  It was agreed that Haasan would bring some further information to the next meeting of the Town Twinning Network in March 2010.

Haydon Wick Parish Council

Peter Hall attended this meeting as Haydon Wick Parish Council were keen to develop a link with a sub-region of Salzgitter.  David Martin agreed to attend a future meeting of the Parish Council’s communications committee to discuss this in further detail.

Swindon Salzgitter Twinning Association

Councillor Dart reported that the next visit to Salzgitter would take place in mid May 2010.

Swindon Ocotal Link

Bruce Clarke confirmed that five people had visited Ocotal to celebrate 200 years Ocotal as a city and that there had also been a representative from Salzgitter there.  Dorothy Clarke had successfully introduced Bollywood dancing and the costumes and make-up had been left in Ocotal to be used at other events.  There were also talks regarding a project between the rotary clubs in Swindon and Ocotal.

A conference had been held recently in Bristol regarding links with Nicaragua which had been well attended and proved that there were some very successful links being developed.

Bruce added that they would be celebrating 20 years of twinning next year and that they were looking to bring some dancers to Swindon in June/July 2010.

Torun and Swindon Twinning Enterprise (TASTE)

Six visitors from Torun visited Swindon to take part in the half marathon which was won by Krzyst Bartikiewicz in 1 hour 11 minutes.  The long weekend was a great success and they visited a number of places in and around Swindon.  It was hoped that a team from Swindon would visit Torun for their annual running event in June 2010.

An exhibition of photographs taken in Torun is being organised at the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

            The next meeting of the Town Twinning Network will be held on Wednesday 3^rd March 2010 at 6pm.