IN criticising St Helens' twinning with foreign towns, Joe Pepper (Star, October 22) shows himself to be out of touch with reality.

St Helens has a twin town, Chalon-Sur-Saone and partner town Stuttgart and there has been a great deal of activity between them over many years.

Stuttgart was the first partnership in Europe and took place shortly after World War Two. As well as extending the hand of friendship between towns that had recently been at war, it led to commercial opportunities, particularly for St Helens.

Stuttgart was seriously damaged by allied bombing and St Helens being a 'glass' town was in a position to help with its rebuilding. That early link has survived and remains strong.

Chalon-Sur-Saone contacted St Helens 50 years ago with an offer, being a 'glass' town itself, Chalon was keen to twin with another.

Throughout these partnerships, students have enjoyed many exchanges that have succeeded in broadening the experience of young people.

Thousands of sporting, educational and cultural visitors from our twin towns and 101 other countries stayed at Lindisfarne House in Berrys Lane, Sutton.

Although Joe Pepper writes scathingly about culture, he is obviously unaware of the amount of exchanges that take place between St Helens and these towns, all of whom have welcomed a wide variety of cultural visitors.

Valley Brass Band, Haydock have been travelling to both Stuttgart and Chalon for more than 10 years which has led to musicians and choirs coming to visit and perform in St Helens, plus many amateur sporting clubs have travelled to compete with our own.

These links and those involved do not deserve xenophobic remarks. They deserve our full support. Vive Les Jumelages.

Cllr Keith Deakin (via email)