Twinning groups merge to secure long-term future

TWO twinning associations in Henley have merged to try and secure their future.

Officers and members of the Falaise and Leichlingen groups decided on the move after seeing interest dwindle in recent years.

They hope that the new Henley Falaise Leichlingen Twinning Association will lead to “strength and prosperity” as we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.

Patrick Fleming, the group’s chairman, said total membership is 60 and hopes the shared interests will “revitalise” twinning in the town.

Due to covid-19 communications between the twin towns has all but stopped and forced events to be cancelled.

The annual exchange football fixture between AFC Henley U13s and Leichlingen U13s, which has taken place annually for almost 40 years, has been cancelled twice since the virus outbreak.

Mr Fleming, who has been a member of both associations for about 15 years, said: “I made a visit to Leichlingen last year in January as their mayor had given us an award because of the way we had supported twinning but that was the last communication.

“We’ve had occasional phone calls and emails but nothing more than that and we’ve avoided attempts to reorganise visits as the lockdowns meant we were stuck in our homes. There’s been no opportunity to do much — it’s really come to a stop.”

Henley has been twinned with Falaise in France since 1974 and Leichlingen in Germany since 1979 and members of the twinning associations would organise visits. The last visit to Germany was in 2019, when residents of Falaise came to Henley.

Mr Fleming, who lives in Berkshire Road, said: “Normally we’d have an annual visit to each place but we’re hoping to have one twinning visit where we go to one and one will come to us. Not everyone likes to travel so we’re hoping, fingers crossed, that will work.”

However, Mr Fleming isn’t sure how visits between the towns will take place moving forward in light of the pandemic. He said: “Twinning has always been about sharing homes and I think because of covid there may be a reluctance for people to stay in other people’s houses.

“So we need to be careful and mindful of that. It may be that people stay in hotels more than homes but we hope not.

“If the vaccines really work it may give people the confidence that they need to accept people into their homes because when we do that we get to speak the language and get the personal exchanges as well as the town exchanges.”

The association will hold its first annual meeting tomorrow (Saturday) in the grounds of Harpsden village hall.

Mr Fleming hopes it will be the first of many social events to return. He said: “With the amalgamation we can provide a more rounded programme of events that people can go to moving forward. That’s the way we’re going to revitalise it.

“The French have an event called café parlez which they ran at Café Rouge in Hart Street and that was very successful as it was a chance to speak French. We want to encourage that and give people the chance to practise and get absorbed in the culture as well.”

Mr Fleming said the group hopes to appeal to young adults to become members and they are thinking of ways to attract them.

Mr Fleming said: “We have music exchanges and football matches but we don’t seem to appeal to young adults so there’s a bit of a challenge there to make twinning appealing.

“The merger has come at a very tricky time because we’ve not been able to do any twinning or have any social arrangements. We would have a programme of events such as film shows but we’re hoping to start those up again.”

Mr Fleming is confident that the links will overcome covid and the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union in January.

He said: “We’re going to make sure we carry on. The twinning was set up well before Brexit and before we were in the EU so we’ve returned to how it was and there’s always that want to stay connected.”

Henley has also been twinned with Bled in Slovenia since 2013 and has a friendship link with Borama, Somalia, since 1982.