The original purpose of twinning to promote friendship, tolerance, understanding, and cultural and educational exchanges between towns and their citizens has been diluted and its relevance to cities and their citizens across the UK has diminished largely due to improved telecommunications, the internet and cheap travel. Schools now develop their own relationships with other schools of their choice around the world. There is no need to limit partners to twin town schools.

In some respects, Preston is an exception with some of the most enduring twin town relationships in the country. Preston boasts relationships dating from the post-war era to the present day, specifically, Almelo (Holland) 1948, Nimes (France) 1955, Recklinghausen (Germany) 1956, Kalisz (Poland), 1989.

The spread of the English language globally has contributed to a decline in interest in the UK for learning other languages and engaging in two-way exchanges. While there remains much interest in international students visiting Preston to learn or improve their English it is extremely difficult to elicit similar enthusiasm among Preston students to visit its twin towns. This is exacerbated by the relative obscurity of Preston’s twin towns and difficulty in accessing them when presented with a multitude of cheap flight alternatives to well known holiday destinations.

However, while twinning, in general, has not moved with the times and has disappeared in many UK towns, twinning is thriving in towns and cities outside the UK where the commercial and inward investment benefits complement the towns’ cultural advancement. Nimes, for example, has recently extended its network to include Fort Worth in Texas making a total of 9 relationships in total.

Today, in Preston, twinning provides the only consistent international marketing activity dedicated to promoting the city. PTP initiated inward and outbound civic, individual and group visits from and to Preston’s twin towns are a regular occurrence and do much to promote the city, its attractions, history and culture.

Plans are underway to attract other partner towns to include those that would appeal to a diverse range of Prestonians, making twinning more relevant and accessible to a larger number of citizens.

Preston Twinning Partnership is funded almost entirely by Preston Council. The intention is to develop additional sources of income and to become self-funding.

That twinning in Preston has survived and even thrived is largely due to the dedication and voluntary efforts of a small number of members of the Preston Twinning Partnerships (PTP) committee. However, it is under threat due to aging membership of the PTP committee, lack of funding, absence of clear strategy for future development and a lack of engagement with the broader Preston community where awareness of Preston’s twin towns, or even their country location, is depressingly low.

The PTP considers that change is now vital to bring twinning up to date, fit for purpose and capable of realizing its potential to benefit the city and its citizens.