THE Mayor of Cirencester has distanced himself from a proposed friendship agreement with the city of Bathurst in Australia.
The partnership between the Cotswold town and regional city in New South Wales was put to the council last year, and was the idea of Lord Bathurst of Cirencester Park.
Former mayor Mark Harris and Cirencester Community Development Trust both quickly came on board, before a gathering of the town’s business people was held at Cirencester Park in June.
With several firms agreeing to sponsor the partnership, including setting up a fund to send one young person on a trip to the Australian city, thousands of pounds were soon raised.
However, speaking at Tuesday’s town council meeting, Mayor Nigel Robbins explained he had met with Cllr Harris and Lord Bathurst the previous week, and said: “I decline to get involved at this stage.”
“On your behalf, as this council has never properly considered or voted in favour I decline to get involved at this stage.
“I did make the point that there are lots of other places which we could happily develop participation sharing, for want of a better word, twinning arrangements, where people would be able to travel to those places much more reasonably than they could possibly to Australia.
“I also commented on the additional workload it would bring to get involved in the selection and award of a bursary to some person or other who they planning to raise money.
“I did that with a slightly heavy heart but that's the situation we are in at the moment.”
Also speaking at the meeting, Cllr Harris said after being invited by the city of Bathurst to create a friendship via Lord Bathurst in 2016, it was announced in the council’s community services group.
“It wasn't formally debated but done as an announcement,” he said.
“It was picked up as one of the things that we could have association with.
“We didn't want to do it as a twinning arrangement or anything like that and it would just be schooled along the side lines.
“It wasn't an official town council thing,” he added.
On September 26, members of Cotswold District Council will decide on an outline planning application for 2,350 homes in Chesterton, submitted by Bathurst Development Ltd.
Cllr Robbins said: “There is a subtext I didn't think of at the time, and that is to do with this planning application, the association with the Bathursts at this particular time is unfortunate.”
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