THE mayors of Horwich and Crowborough in East Sussex met up to celebrate saving the two towns’ twinning relationship.

The towns have been twinned for 25 years but that partnership came under threat last year when several members of Crowborough Town Council suggested the partnership was no longer worthwhile and engineered a vote on the issue.

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

But Crowborough’s town mayor, Cllr Ron Reed held firm and secured the votes he needed from the council to maintain the arrangement.

This news delighted Horwich Town Mayor Cllr Richard Silvester who spoke in his inauguration speech in May about his desire to forge stronger links with the East Sussex town and its elected members.

This weekend Cllr Reed visited the railway town for a three-day stay — and he and his opposite number began putting plans together for a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the twinning deal.

He said: “It was wonderful to get the opportunity to visit Horwich for the first time — it is a beautiful old town.

“There are quite a lot of similarities between our towns and the potential for what we can do together is enormous.”

Cllr Reed was taken on trips around Rivington, to a service at Horwich Parish Church and to the Horwich Heritage Centre where he met a host of representatives from the town’s community and voluntary groups.

Cllr Silvester, who travelled to Crowborough in December, said: “We were very pleased to host Cllr Reed and I think he got a real flavour of our town and its strong sense of community.

“We were able to start putting some plans together for how we will celebrate the anniversary in March and have spoken about getting some inter town sports matches organised.”

Cllr Reed was presented with a special painting by local artist Gerry Halpin, a former art teacher at Rivington and Blackrod High School.

Cllr Reed said: “It was a lovely gesture and I will be hanging the painting in our council chamber.”

Cllr Silvester said he was “very pleased” with the progress being made between the two towns.

He added: “I am happy to be fulfilling the promise I made to improve the relationship between our two towns.”