PROPOSALS have been put forward for West Dunbartonshire Council to host an event in February next year to celebrate the area’s European connections.

On Monday, WDC’s cultural committee agreed to set up a working group to organise celebrations in three months’ time.

Plans are being made to involve representatives from the Polish, Irish and French consulates. The event is expected to be held at Clydebank Town Hall.

The roles of the consulates have still to be decided, while officials have yet to make a decision on whether there should be a formal civic element included in the programme for the day.

Councillors were told there would be some costs involved in staging the European Connections event, which will be met from the authority’s cultural budget.

George Hawthorn, manager of democratic and registration services for WDC, told the committee: “It is not possible to estimate the cost of the event until the final programme has been agreed. It is recommended that the maximum amount should not exceed £2,000.

“The development of town twinning activity could have some real educational and cultural benefit for those citizens who participate in such events and the promotion of West Dunbartonshire through these twinning or friendship links could potentially generate some economic benefit to the area through increased tourism.”

Invitations are expected to go out to Donegal council in Ireland with a view to a friendship link with Letterkenny Municipal District.

A similar invitation will be sent to the Polish Consul General confirming the aim of forming a friendship link with a Polish town, potentially Gdynia, as well as WDC’s existing French twinning arrangements with Argenteuil, in the suburbs of Paris, and Beauvoisin.

The working group will meet at the new council offices in Dumbarton at noon on Wednesday, December 19.

Earlier this year the council’s twinning links were described as “not a priority” by opposition councillors in the face of the ongoing, and increasing, pressure on the authority’s core services.

Meanwhile, the committee heard on Monday its chairman, Bailie Denis Agnew, had been made an honorary patron of the Combatants Memorial Group.