A CHANCE to be involved in town twinning will be on offer when a meeting is held at Bolton Town Hall on Monday.

Local people are invited to attend to give their views at the meeting, which starts at 10am.

Speakers will include Michael Tatman, ex-vice chairman of Bolton's town twinning committee. Alan Shilaker, from the North-west Twinning Association, will be explaining the business and general advantages of twinning.

Bolton is already twinned with Paderborn in Germany and Le Mans in France. The meeting is to look at getting local people more involved, and about widening twinning links.

Councillor Cliff Morris, chairman of Bolton Council's Civic and Millennium Policy Development group, which looks after twinning, reaffirmed the council's commitment to involving more local people in twinning.

He explained: "A suggestion has been put forward that a new Bolton Community Town Twinning Association be set up independently from the council, and we will certainly support this.

"Twinning is for everyone, and I wish this new association the very best of luck for the future."