Agenda item

Swindon Salzgitter Twinning Association 

            Reg Clarke reported on the success of the recent Swindon International Festival and Conference and added that a letter of thanks had been sent to all those organisations that had provided sponsorship for the event.  All Twinning Associations and Links would be notified of any future event well in advance to give them the opportunity to organise a visit and to undertake fundraising to enable the visit to take place.  It was also agreed that publicity from any Town Twinning or Link activity would be distributed to all local Twinning Associations and Links to ensure that everyone was aware of what was happening.  With regard to the budget, Mr Clarke asked that any outstanding costs should be forwarded to David Martin who was still in the process of finalising this budget.  The football tournament had not taken place and the £1000 grant for this event, as approved by the Network, would be returned to Swindon Borough Council.

            Some discussion took place around the chairing of the conference and it was agreed that Councillor Montaut, as Chair of the Town Twinning Network, would deal with this issue outside of this meeting.

            Mr Clarke also informed the Network that the Swindon Salzgitter Twinning Association would be having their 30 years celebration next year and that official civic visits would be taking place some time during the year.

Swindon Ocotal Link (SOL)

            Karen Mayell updated the Network on the activities of the Swindon Ocotal Link.  It was felt that the conference had been very successful and SOL recommended that this be made an annual event under the name of The Town Twinning Network.  Members of the Network agreed that this should be an annual event but that, due to the amount of work involved, the event should be organised and hosted by the different countries, on a round robin basis.

            Ms Mayell reported that Lesther had had a tremendous stay in Swindon and was currently on his way home.  Links had been established between Hreod Parkway and Greendown Schools with a school in Ocotal and New College and Swindon College had offered free learning in English Language and Tourism.  $8500 had been raised to take back to Ocotal for specific purposes.

            Seven people were due to visit Ocotal at the end of November for two weeks and for six of these people it will be their first visit to Central America.

Swindon Torun Link

            Councillor Stan Pajak updated members of the Network with the activities of Swindon Torun Link, which included:

·        Employees from Torun Electricity Company working at Swindon RWE Innogy Company and Tyco Ltd

·        Swindon Youth Ice Hockey Team planning to take part in an ice hockey tournament in Torun during March 2005.  Peter Cejer added that this is also an opportunity for people wishing to visit Torun to share transport and keep the costs down.  He had also invited the Torun team to participate in a tournament during the May Bank Holiday and would be seeking help and support, especially with accommodation, again to keep the costs down.

·        Possibility of EU supported “family exchange” for a visit in the Summer via europa funding.

·        Road naming possibility in the Northern Sector – names associated with Torun.

·        Speedway match between Swindon and Torun – legs in both cities.

·        Torun photographer, Marek Czarnecki, is hoping to market “Swindon Panoramas” by late Summer 2005.

La Garenne Link

            The Haydon Wick Twinning Committee agreed to the following actions at their last meeting:

·        Invite each of the 5 primary schools in Haydon Wick to start an e-mail link with a nominated school in La Garenne.

·        For sometime, a group of mature students have used the Community Centre at Haydon Wick for French language lessons.  They are to be encouraged to link with a similar adult English language group in La Garenne.

·        The exhibition of work carried out by the schools in Haydon Wick depicting the Twinning link and presently on display in North Swindon library will shortly close and ways are being sought to send one of the exhibits to La Garenne.  Estimates of costs are proving to be prohibitive and ideas are sought.