REPRESENTATIVES from Bolton’s twin towns have paid a visit to the borough.

People from Le Mans, in France, and Paderborn, in Germany, visited the Shree Swaminarayan Hindu Mandir temple in Deane Road, which has recently had a £2.5 million makeover.

The were in Bolton to see how the town has increased awareness of different religious faiths.

After being shown all aspects of the Mandir by its committee members, the group took a close look at the photo gallery mounted on the ceiling.

They were also impressed with the Mandir committee’s work in the community.

The committee has overseen school visits from hundreds of pupils every year.

This visit coincided with Bolton’s Food and Drink Festival.

Ganshyambhai Patel, chairman of the Mandir, said: “We welcome everyone who wants to visit the Mandir.

“It was a privilege to have visitors from our twin towns who had many questions and were pleased with their visit.”

Chan Parmar, strategic officer at Bolton Interfaith Council, added: “It was a very good visit and the Mandir committee made our visitors very welcome.

“They came to visit Bolton when it was a very good weekend for the town, and they were genuinely very pleased. In fact, they were fascinated.

“It was nice to be breaking down barriers. I think that, being part of Europe, we are all trying to work towards cohesion.”

Mr Parmar said the Council has plenty of other community visits planned in the future.

He added: “It could be a secondary school, it could be a scout group — we want to reach out to as many as people as possible and anyone is welcome.”