HORWICH could soon be dumped by its twin town.

Councillors in Crowborough, East Sussex, are set to vote on whether or not to continue the 25-year relationship with their northern partner.

A meeting of the town council saw arguments between elected members on whether the association with Horwich was worth continuing.

The two towns became twinned in 1990 in what was a historic move as it was the first time towns within England had been twinned with each other.

Crowborough also enjoys a partnership with French-town Montargis and some councillors believe that relationship is more beneficial than the one with Horwich. Cllr Beverley Johnstone said: “I was questioning whether the arrangement is an active and important one — I think the original link was made between the bonfire societies in each town but it doesn’t seem to have become anything more.”

But Crowborough’s Town Mayor, Cllr Ron Reed, is keen to re-establish the links, and sees the upcoming 25th anniversary of the twinning arrangement as the perfect opportunity. He said: “I think the anniversary could be a great platform to re-launch the relationship.

“We have actually sent a newsletter out to ask local people to see if they would be interested in volunteering to help re-build the links, so we will see what responses we get.”

The next meeting of Crowborough council will see the issue added to the agenda and councillors will vote on whether they believe the twinning arrangement should continue.

It is a relationship that the Mayor of Horwich, Cllr Richard Silvester, is keen to work on.

"As Mayor, my role is to promote Horwich and that includes our twinning link with Crowborough which next year in March, will be 25 years old. In my inauguration speech as Mayor in May, I said that I would work to improve our twinning link with Crowborough and I have been doing exactly that and fostering good working relationships."

One local resident with experience of both towns is Craig Rotherham, a founding member of the community group Horwich first.

After being born and raised in Horwich, he very nearly moved to Crowborough.

He said: “It is a lovely place but so is Horwich — we have close to a million visitors coming to Rivington alone each year and I think we need to realise the potential that Horwich has.”