COUNCILLORS have opted to approach Gloucestershire's local enterprise partnership GFirst LEP in relation to taking the lead regarding a proposed friendship agreement between Cirencester and Yichun City in China.

Earlier this year, delegates from the Chinese city had approached Cirencester Town Council with the proposal, which includes exploration of business and investment opportunities.

Speaking at a full council meeting last Tuesday, Johan Newman, CTC assistant chief executive, said: "This came about after a visit from representatives from Yichun City last year and they got in touch with us in regards to forming a formal agreement with ourselves, which first came to us in March."

She said Cllr David Henson, who was not present at the meeting, has since made recommendations to change certain aspects of the agreement "with his legal knowledge".

His revised agreement was presented to councillors for approval at the meeting, with delegates from the city keen to visit Cirencester between September and November.

Former mayor Cllr Mark Harris said he was "a little concerned that the original wording of the agreement may put the town council in a position, where, in some way or another, we were bound to each other and if we didn't deliver on the agreement we might appear to have reneged on it".

He said: "David looked at it and said it was potentially contractually binding either in Chinese or English law" while former town councillor Tatyan Cheung had warned there maybe issues with the translation from Chinese to English.

"My concern does arise from part of the tone of it," said Cllr Harris.

The agreement refers to a relationship having been created between the two areas "over the years" which he said "just isn't true".

"I would like to propose that we take this document away and we put it into terms that are more relative."

The population of Yichun City is around 1.32 million, and is made up of 15 districts, in comparison to Cirencester's 19,100 residents.

What's more, Cllr Harris said the city turned over "something like 1.8 billion US dollars" in the first quarter of this year and he feared there is a "massive disparity" when comparing it to Cirencester.

"It's not in any way to say we shouldn't have some sort friendship but it does seem to me that it's probably slightly overstating the case," he said, suggesting advice be sought from GFirst LEP.

However, Cllr Lee Searles took it one step further, arguing that the LEP would be "the ideal vehicle to take control of this" with Cirencester having a smaller involvement.

"All the engineering excellence that's in Gloucestershire, it would be an equal relationship.

"That would be the ideal way to hand it to a body that's got competence to handle that relationship, without embarrassing ourselves, frankly," he said.

Deputy mayor Cllr Patrick Coleman added: "Reluctantly we are probably not in a position to host a visit, if they want to come between September and November."