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Calne carnival to return with twins

7:00am Monday 19th October 2009


Councillors have agreed to increase the budget for next year’s twinning visit to Calne by £5,000 and re-instate the town’s carnival.

The town will host representatives from all three twin towns – Charlieu in France, Eningen in Germany and Caln in America – for the first time ever next June, and councillors voted to increase the town events budget from £10,000 to £15,000 in preparation for the celebrations.

Town development support officer Clare Harris said: “This particular twinning visit is special as it will be the third tri-nation visit and the first time we have received both of our European twins at the same time.

“It will also mark the 40th anniversary of Calne being twinned with Charlieu.”

The events budget is already being used for the Christmas lights switch on, and councillors agreed that it was necessary to increase funds to hold a carnival over the twinning weekend, present town representatives with the Calne flag and provide entertainment.

A town crier competition will form part of the weekend and around £1,500 has been set aside to buy new robes for town crier Mark Wylie in the colours of the Calne flag, green, blue and gold.

Mrs Harris said: “The Sunday town crier competition will be a prestigious event, and invitations will be extended to town criers from all over the region to compete for the accolade of best crier.”

It is thought the total cost of the twinning visit will be about £9,400.

Around £4,500 of the events budget is already being used for the Christmas lights switch on, which will include the hire of a synthetic ice rink.

In the past the town council has had no involvement in funding or organising the summer carnival, but officers will be working with Malcolm Gull from the Calne Twinning Association and the Calne Community Group to organise this event.

Deputy town clerk Daryl Saville-Brown said: “We have met with the group and things seem to be sorting themselves out.

“We want to host a really fantastic weekend to showcase Calne, and between the twinning group, the council and the community group we will have civic and town events.”

The summer carnival was organised by the Calne Area Initiative for an Active Community (CAIAC) in the past but, as the group disbanded earlier this year, the event was not held this summer.


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dilemma, calne says...
5:34pm Mon 19 Oct 09

Nice to have celebrations as long as the £5000 increase comes from money saved elsewhere! Remember there is a recession and Couincil Tax too high in Calne already.

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Triton, Calne/Devizes says...
7:44pm Mon 19 Oct 09

And what benefit does the rate paying public of Calne get anyway??

www.calnetalk.com

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Whisperer, Calne says...
8:41am Tue 20 Oct 09

Couldn't agree more with the previous two comments. Also, will we in the future have to finance reciprocal visits to France, Germany & USA?

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Sneezy, Wilts says...
12:05pm Tue 20 Oct 09

The councils efforts should be on cost cutting so they can hold the current level of council tax or reduce it not find new ways of spending it.
Do the carnival organisers want or need the council getting involved?? Often these things are better left to the volunteers to do!

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timetogo, Calne says...
2:08pm Tue 20 Oct 09

Couldn't agree more. The council dont appear to have any idea that there is a recession on and things are hard out there in the real world.

Yes up the carnival budget - at least we'll have one for a change - but only if it is funded from cost savings elsewhere and not as part of a general increase.

They are already planning to take on the refurb and maintenance of another park and building (see other recent gazette articles) which is likely to cost the taxpayer £10,000's extra each year.

If any councillors read this, please please please stop spending and start reducing your overheads to reduce the tax burden on your citizens.

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BusDriver, Calne says...
2:39pm Tue 20 Oct 09

So, which other vomit-stained overtaxed hole are we going to twin Calne with next? How about cleaning the streets properly, compulsory purchase of the derelict shops and proper policing of the hooded and tracksuited ones? In this way, we can drag the town's appeal up to the level of Beirut or the Bronx and be proud to twin with the third world.

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Triton, Calne/Devizes says...
3:13pm Tue 20 Oct 09

We had a debate about this recently on Calnetalk - http://calnetalk.myf
reeforum.org/ftopic1
368-0.php - and even with town councillors giving their opinion there was no plausible reason why any Town should be twinned with that of a foreign country. To the vast majority of tax/rate paying residents it gives absolutely zero benefits for their money. We would rather see our bin collections weekly rather than fortnightly or see a bit more of a police presence on the streets than spend funds toward being twinned with some nondescript town in mumbo jumbo land.

www.calnetalk.com

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Sneezy, Wilts says...
11:00pm Wed 21 Oct 09

The only thing twinning seems to do is to give councillors an opportunity to hold receptions dress up and play politician at our expence and presumably they will be expecting to get invited back to the towns invited here again at tax payers expence.
As for the refurbishment of the building at the town hall?? Is it needed is there a business case for it and a need for this building?? I doubt it!
The council needs to have a good look at its expenditure and hold any tax increase for a few years and cut its cost and reduce waste

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Hourglass, Calne says...
3:31pm Thu 22 Oct 09

I'm amazed at the ignorance shown in previous comments about Calne and about Twinning in Calne. How many of you actually care enough about the town and wider community to become involved in making it a better place for everyone to live? You obviously know nothing about Calne or about Twinning. Get a life all of you and find out what's going on by being actively involved instead of being armchair critics and hurling abuse at those who are working hard to make Calne a better place to live in.
You should also know by now that you do not believe all you read in the Gazette - but it's obviously a good wind up for those who want to make an uneducated and faceless point about something of which they know nothing.

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Triton, Calne/Devizes says...
6:58pm Tue 27 Oct 09

Ok then, Hourglass please tell me what benefits there are to the average tax payer? Here's a different view to your holier-than-thou attitude, I don't want my local town or village to be twinned because I want the money to be spent on items that directly affect me. That may be a selfish attitude but I would rather see my bins getting emptied weekly or see other services improve rather than a bunch of councillors going to some foreign land on a jolly-up in my name on expenses paid for by my taxes. If you can't see that, Hourglass then tough!! You are in the minority on this one!

www.calnetalk.com

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malcgull, Calne says...
8:10pm Sun 1 Nov 09

I would hate to spoil a 'good' story with a bit of honesty but please allow me to put a few things straight. The Calne Twinning Association is run by non-councillor volunteers and our membership includes no known councillors. When we travel to visit our twin towns, we pay our own way and recieve NO council expenses. Hence your council taxes are untouched by any twinning hand and can still be used to empty your bins. As for the story in the Gazette that started this forum nonsense, then as one of the contributors to the article, all I can say is that not one penny of the £10K or £15K will go towards twinning. The money will be used to give the residents of Calne a 2009 firework display as well as a 2009 Xmas Lights Festival (see page 23 of your Town Crier for details). In addition, it will be used for a Summer Festival in 2010 that will be spread over two days and include events at Beversbrook and the Town Centre. So, as I should have said at the start, let's not spoil a good (for Calne) story with a incorrect slant of the truth.

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