PENARTH Town Council is considering forming a network with three towns in Eastern Europe in a bid to apply for funding of up to €150,000.

The Town Twinning Committee has discussed applying to be part of the Europe for Citizens Programme so that it can be eligible for funding to “develop long-lasting networks to share good practice around an area of mutual interest”.

A report before the committee last Thursday, October 16, said: “Funding can be used for an in-depth exchange of ideas and best practice around shared issues. Networks can be the starting point for further funding bids for joint projects.”

The three towns that have responded to letters so far are Cumpana in Romania (population 11,000), Svishtov in Bulgaria (population 50,000) and Plavinas in Latvia (population 6,000).

All of the towns have been chosen as they share a “common interest” with Penarth and are willing to form a network of towns.

Councillors agreed to pursue more towns with similar interests in Western Europe, whilst bearing in mind whether the twinning would benefit the town and whether they were easily accessible to local residents that wanted to travel there.

Councillor Janice Birch, who represents the Stanwell ward, raised concerns about accessibility to the towns as she didn’t want anyone “to be marooned in Latvia with no way home”.

Keri Hutchings, deputy town clerk, said that the council was still trying to contact St Pol de Leon, which has a long history of being twinned with Penarth since 1966, but they hadn’t received anything back yet.

Cllr Janice Birch added that the generation of councillors from St Pol de Leon that were interested in a civic town twinning were now dead, and they were more concerned with schools being linked.

She added: “We can’t make the schools in Penarth have links.”

Keri Hutchings added that the majority of town twinning was now done online with “digital e-twinning” rather than visiting each town.

Councillor Anthony Ernest, who represents the Plymouth ward, said that when considering town twinning the accessibility should be taken into account, as one of the complaints of the relationship with St Pol de Leon was that it was a three hour drive to Plymouth and then a two hour boat trip across the Channel if you didn’t fly there.

“If you do that twice in 48 hours it doesn’t give you much time,” he said.

“We want to consider their particular proximity with whatever choice we come up with.”

Councillor Clive Williams, who also represents the Plymouth ward, said they should choose somewhere that benefitted the town.

Keri Hutchings said they would consider “post-industrial towns close to water”, but they didn’t have to be beside the sea.

Councillors agreed to consider more towns that may wish to network with the town council and meet the timetable of the next round of funding, which would be March 1. The committee is next due to meet on January 7.