WITNEY'S mayor Jeanette Baker paid a visit to Witney’s twin town in Germany to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the link.

She travelled to Unterhaching, near Munich, in Bavaria, with Eleonore Bruyere-Perkins of the Witney & District Twinning Association and the Witney Town Band from Friday, July 4, to Sunday, July 6.

They attended a ceremony at which the German town was celebrating its partnerships with towns elsewhere in Europe. It also has links with Bischofshofen in Austria and Adeje, on Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands.

Each town’s mayor addressed an audience of more than 500 people at the event and 14 members of the Witney Town Band played alongside musicians from the three other towns. The band was then invited by the mayor of Adeje to visit Tenerife in October, but needs to find a sponsor to fund the cost of transporting instruments to make the trip possible.

The group from Witney also attended a beer festival, watched Germany’s World Cup quarter-final win against France on TV and visited the Bavarian Alps.

Mrs Baker said: “I cannot speak highly enough of Witney Town Band, who represented Witney so wonderfully with their talent and enthusiasm of music.

“The whole weekend was truly a hand of friendship between all the towns involved. The hospitality and generosity shown by the people of Unterhaching to all the visitors was an experience and inspiring.

“The benefit of the partnerships to our respective towns in encouraging knowledge and tourism is endless. Witney has so much to offer in its heritage, history, arts and community to visitors.”