New invitation revives Newtown’s American twinning plans

Plans to twin Newtown with an American town are back before councillors after a formal invitation to sign an agreement next month.

New Harmony in Indiana has approached Newtown Town Council directly, six months after an earlier attempt to develop the partnership was put back into the council’s pool of possible projects.

The invitation proposes signing a twinning agreement during a conference in New Harmony from November 12 to 15.

Councillors will consider the approach at their meeting on Monday, 26 October.

In letters to Mayor Cllr Margaret Lewington and Town Clerk Ed Humphreys, New Harmony’s town council president wrote: “It would be our honour to formalise this relationship during the conference’s opening reception through the signing of a twinning agreement between our respective communities.”

The proposed partnership centres on Robert Owen, who was born in Newtown and is buried in the town. New Harmony was the setting for his Community of Equality experiment between 1825 and 1827.

The twinning proposal was previously pursued by Heritage Hub for Mid Wales.

In October 2024, councillors gave moral support to the organisation to establish the level of community backing and prepare a costed business case for a sustainable partnership.

However, the latest council papers record that Heritage Hub said in April this year it was no longer pursuing the work. The council then returned the proposal to its five-year project pool.

The new invitation, dated September 29, comes from New Harmony’s town council and links the proposed agreement to its Innovative Communities: Past, Present and Future conference.

“We believe a twinning partnership would foster friendship, mutual understanding, and ongoing collaboration between our communities for years to come,” the letter says.

Links between the communities already extend beyond the twinning discussions. In May 2025, Heritage Hub and the Robert Owen Museum joined New Harmony organisers in a video event marking the bicentenary of Owen’s purchase of the Indiana town.

Newtown has also been twinned with Les Herbiers in France since 1999.

A council background report from October 2024 recorded that Newtown Twinning Association did not have the resources to take on an American partnership alongside its French links. It suggested a separate group could develop the proposal.

New Harmony has offered to discuss travel and accommodation arrangements if Newtown sends an official representative to November’s conference. Its letter does not specify who would pay.

Monday’s agenda asks councillors to consider whether existing commitments and the pending organisational review leave capacity for additional projects.