CIRENCESTER Twinning Association is to form an umbrella group with Tetbury, Malmesbury and Nailsworth

The first meeting held on November 20 hosted by Tetbury and chaired by CTA with support from Cirencester mayor Patrick Coleman was met with an enthusiastic response from all members.

A spokesman for CTA said: “The move follows on from a Bristol Conference promoting international twinning between towns and cities where twinning is a tried and tested way of linking people with their counterparts in other countries.

“We believe that collaboration with one another exchanging ideas and sharing social events will strengthen our resolve to keep the doors to Europe open.”

Malmesbury will host the second meeting.

Cirencester Twinning Association has been linked to Itzehoe, near Hamburg, since 1982 and St Genis Laval, near Lyon.

2019 sawa successful summer visit to Cirencester by friends in Itzehoe and at the end of November, a small return visit was conducted to enjoy a feast of German Christmas Markets, including of course, Itzehoe.

This year Cirencester has been invited to join in the Itzehoe twinning festival from June 3 to 8.

This will mark the 30th anniversaries of twinning with Paslek (Poland) and friendship with Malchin (in former East Germany) and will include their Weinfest.

It is also likely that residents of La Couronne, France will come.

For more information about Cirencester Twinning Association see cirencestertwinningassociation.org.uk.