Preston gets hint about how to fill empty shops from twin city in Germany as the pair celebrate 65 years of friendship

That was the verdict of Preston mayor Neil Darby after a recent visit to Recklinghausen in Germany to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the enduring partnership between the pair.

During a four-day trip to the city, in the north west of the country, delegates from Preston Twinning Partnerships were given a tour of its retail district and heard how local officials had tried to tackle a problem that will be familiar to Prestonians – the sight of empty shops, left deserted by departing stores.

They were told that Recklinghausen had stepped in an attempt to ensure that its shopping streets survive and thrive amidst huge shifts in the retail landscape in recent years, which have only been hastened by the pandemic.

“There was a really interesting initiative to try and fill up some of those vacant units – and it would be nice to see if we could learn from that, “ Cllr Darby told the Lancashire Post.

“They are working together with the landlords of different shops [to bring] in local entrepreneurs who are just starting up businesses and who are given a reduced [rental] rate for two years.

“After that time period, if they are able to stand on their own two feet, that’s wonderful – but if not, then they’ve not lost anything and at least there has been [a business] in that unit.

“Some of those shops were brilliant ideas, so it would be lovely to see something similar in Preston,” Cllr Darby said.

Amongst the ventures visited by the Preston delegation was a project based on recycling unwanted clothing into baby garments and household items.

Although not all of the subsidised start-ups have been a success, the idea seems to have inspired the 11-strong team from Preston, which included chief executive Adrian Phillips, last year’s mayor, Cllr Javed Iqbal, and a group of volunteers from the twinning association.

The Post understands that Preston has sent a letter to the Recklinghausen mayor thanking the city not only for its hospitality, but also for an insight into the “creative” way that it is dealing with shifting retail trends and the growth in online shopping.

The two places first joined forces in 1956 – the third of what would become four twinning arrangements entered into by Preston – sparked by what were then similar industries and demographics. For many years, soldiers from Preston were also stationed in that part of Germany, helping to build more cordial relations with the UK.

Cllr Darby said that he was struck by the fact that the two cities had developed along such a similar trajectory over such a long period of time – to the extent that they are now facing many of the same modern-day challenges, like filling redundant retail space.

He believes that the beauty of twinning relationships lies in both the exchange of ideas that can benefit both places and the forging of friendships that bridge divides of culture and distance.

“We can all learn from each other – no one country or city has got a monopoly on good ideas.

“They were really interested in the work we had done in terms of integration of different communities. You could see some of the things that they had picked up from us 10 or 20 years ago – and, in some ways, they are doing it better than we ever did.

“A lot of the focus is also.on trying to get schools and young people to be able to see how people live in different parts of the world. It means that they can see that there is a world beyond our door and how other people live.

“And there is an awful lot of potential [for businesses] – twinning is a way that they can build up relationships and find new markets and new people to buy their products,” Cllr Darby said.

Preston City Council’s cabinet recently agreed to contribute £3,500 to Preston Twinning Partnerships’ work for the year 2022/23, a renewal of a 16-year-old agreement to facilitate twinning activities and events that it might not be possible for the authority alone to deliver.

Preston will now prepare to welcome a party from Recklinghausen next year, as the pair continue to rekindle a relationship that was necessarily put on hold during the earlier part of the pandemic.

According to a report by the twinning association, members of the Preston delegation were treated to a mix of cultural and culinary highlights during their stay – and were even gently pranked by a suggestion that were going to meet Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp during a visit to the stadium of his former club, Borussia Dortmund.

In a sign of the depth of the friendship between the two cities, the visitors were also reunited with Recklinghausen locals who may never have set foot in Preston were it not for the fact that the places were twinned. They included a law student who spent time in Preston City Council’s legal department last year as part of an exchange visit and a ukulele group that had previously visited for the Lancashire Encounter festival.

Preston Twinning Partnerships secretary Jürgen Voges heralded the trip a huge success and said he was “totally delighted” with how it had gone. The group is also encouraging schools and other groups who are interested in establishing links with any of Preston’s twin cities to get in touch.

Far from being a quirk of history, Cllr Darby says that the concept of twinning is as important now as it ever was.

“It started in the aftermath of World War Two, so there is a historic element to it – but [it has] a future as well.

“It’s never going to be an outdated idea that we need to talk to our neighbours and to get to know them.”

MESSAGES ACROSS THE MILES

The mayors of both Preston and Recklinghausen extolled the virtues of the longstanding relationship between the cities when a Preston delegation travelled to Germany earlier this month to celebrate 65 years of friendship.

Recklinghausen mayor Christoph Tesche, speaking in English, said: “The connection is our oldest twin town. We want the anniversary [to be] an opportunity not only to continue this, but to intensify it.”

His Preston counterpart, Neil Darby, responded with a speech in German in which he spoke of the need for the cities to turn their attention to the “next generation”.

“We think of those from Preston and those from Recklinghausen who we hope will sit here in another 65 years’ time. Friends as we are today and reaping the seeds we sow now. I hope that once again we can build links between our schools and young people, so that they can learn of the culture and history we share – and learn to love and cherish the differences rather than fear them.

“Too often in recent years we have let fear of difference rule us. We all know very well there is a high price to pay for such weakness. But it is my firm belief that the twinning programme is a valuable tool in standing up to this human weakness. By working together we can build – and rebuild – trust and familiarity,” Cllr Darby said.

FRIENDS FROM FURTHER AFIELD

As well as Recklinghausen, Preston has also been twinned with Almelo in the Netherlands since 1948, Nîmes in France since 1955 and, more recently, the Polish city of Kalisz since 1989.

It was in answer to a call from the latter for help for one of its other twins – the Ukrainian city of Kamianets-Podilskyi.- that Preston raised more than £3,000 as part of a fundraising drive spearheaded by previous mayor Javed Iqval following the Russian invasion earlier this year.

Since then, Preston has signed a “certificate of friendship” with the city – and the current mayor, Neil Darby, says that the two are keen to build on the embryonic relationship which has developed between them in the face of adversity.