BOLTON celebrates 25 years of town twinning with Paderborn in Germany next Wednesday.

The Mayor of Bolton Cllr Alan Wilkinson will be in the Paderborn city over the following weekend for a festival.

But a series of special events are also being planned over the next 12 months to mark the occasion.

In July 1975, a Bolton delegation which included the then Mayor Cllr Jack Foster, travelled to Paderborn for the official signing ceremony.

Bolton also held its own ceremonial signing ceremony in April 1976.

The first moves towards the twinning link were make in 1973 when a letter was received from Paderborn to say they were looking for a UK twinning partner.

At that point, both Bolton and Paderborn were twinned with Le Mans and it was decided that it would make sense to make it a three-way link. Cllr Cliff Morris, who has been involved in town twinning over many years, will be visiting Paderborn next month said: "Our links with our twin town friends are very important to Bolton Council and I'm delighted to accept the invitation to visit Paderborn to discuss in more detail our twinning arrangements.

"In 2001, Bolton will host the International Town Twinning meeting and we'll be inviting delegations from both Paderborn and Le Mans to join when a special programme of visits will be arranged."

Cllr Bob Howarth, Bolton Council leader said: "This is the first time in recent history when Western Europe has not been at war.

"The creation of closer ties with Europe through such initiatives as town twinning has been very important to this."

The council is hoping to host the next international meeting in either June, July or August 2001 and anyoen wanting more information or who has a major event happening should contact Sally Hayes, mayoral, civic and promotions officer on 01204 332001.