Hedge End should not be twinned with Mockmuhl...!

Perhaps one of the biggest issues facing Hedge End Town Council at the moment, is the question of whether Hedge End should be twinned with the town of  Möckmühl  in Southern Germany.

But have you seen that raised as an issue on any of the election leaflets that the Lib Dems have stuffed through your letterbox...?

Why aren't the Lib Dems raising this as an issue in the election campaign? It is clearly a local issue, but they seem very reluctant to discuss it. I can only assume that is because it is a controversial thing for them to be doing, in 2012 austerity Britain...

Part of the problem is that Möckmühl  is actually very different to Hedge End. It is hard to see what, if anything, we have in common. Twinning with Möckmühl is a crazy idea really, reminiscent of the film that paired Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito as "Twins"...

Some of our Town Councillors were invited to visit Möckmühl last December, which I must say (to be fair to them), that they did at their own expense. They subsequently reported on the Hedge End Town Council website to have been overwhelmed by the German hospitality.

Town twinning is a very big deal on the continent and in Germany in particular. Clearly less so in the UK and in Hedge End in particular. The Germans have a budget for Town twinning and seem to regard their "jollies" as a perk of the job. We don't have a budget for Town twinning, mainly I think because it is politically unacceptable to do so. We don't like our elected representatives having fun at the Taxpayers expense. That is usually regarded as scandalous...!

Furthermore, our existing link with Comines-Warneton in Belgium has fizzled out. There is no cultural exchange nor any trade link between the two Towns at the moment. Our link with Comines-Warneton is now little more than a name on the road signs as you enter Hedge End. The citizens of Hedge End are clearly not interested in Town twinning.

When I asked about the twinning process at the February Town Council meeting, I was told that the Council were keen to give local schools the chance to arrange cultural exchanges with Möckmühl.

Which would be great, but surely we don't need to formally twin Hedge End with Möckmühl in order to do that? Schools are quite capable of making their own twinning arrangements if they want to, without it being necessary for the Towns to be formally twinned. They've been doing so for decades...!

So I think Hedge Enders need to be very careful that we don't give our Town Councillors the opportunity to go on "jolly's" to Southern Germany at our expense, and lumber us with the unwanted additional cost of reciprocal hospitality for their German chums.

I have noticed that our Town Councillors have been at pains to explain that any future trips would also be at their own expense, but there are two big problems with that claim.

• They have recently voted, item 8 in the January meeting,  to pay themselves Travel & Subsistence expenses for all Town Council business that is conducted outside of the boundaries of Hedge End. That could of course include Town Council business in Southern Germany...!

• Even if the existing Councillors did fund such trips at their own expense, is it right for them to impose such a burden on future Councillors? There is no "allowance" for serving on the Town Council, i.e. no remuneration. It is a voluntary post. If elected, I would struggle to fund my own trips to Southern Germany on van drivers wages, so I would refuse the invitation. Other Councillors might be in the same position. Sooner or later, Town twinning with  Möckmühl will fizzle-out, because nobody can afford to subsidise those activities out of their own pocket...

So given all of the above, I propose that it would be best for Hedge End if our Town Council bite the bullet and tell the Mayor of  Möckmühl that "Cultural exchanges between schools are always welcome, but due to the economic and political situation that exists at the moment, formal twinning between the two Towns is not possible."

What do you think...?

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents