New Charter say Bienvenue to French Mayor

Published by Peter Bird for New Charter Housing Trust Group in Housing

New Charter say Bienvenue to French Mayor

New Charter Housing Trust recently welcomed Michèle Parent and Eric Alleaume from the French town of Montigny-le-Bretonneux, near Paris, to their Cavendish office. Michèle is the Deputy Lady Mayor and Eric is the Head Chef at the Lycée Descartes, (the local sixth form college).

The dignitaries were visiting Tameside as part of the Town Twinning activities and were delighted to come to New Charter to discuss the forthcoming exchange programme.

The themes of the exchange programme are cooking and horticulture and will see   6 New Charter volunteer residents visit Montigny in June and in July there will be a reciprocal visit by Montigny residents. 

The exchange has been made possible by New Charter, assisted by Tameside Council, in applying for European Funding from the over 50’s Senior Volunteering project. The funding is aimed at building a lasting collaboration with another European organisation around a specific theme, in this case it is cooking and horticulture.

Tony Powell, New Charter Housing Trust’s Executive Director of Neighbourhoods said: “This is the perfect way of finding out how residents in different European countries go about their daily tasks. So much can be learnt by this exchange programme and I am sure our residents are excited about their visit next year.”

Michèle Parent, who is Responsible for International Relations and Town Twinning said: We are so looking forward to working with New Charter on this project and hope there will be opportunities to work with them on other projects.

To make the trip residents were judged on their commitment to their local communities, their love of cooking and horticulture and how they would put into use the skills they will learn during the exchange.

The town of Montigny-le-Bretonneux is situated some 25 kilometres south-west of Paris and 5 kilometres from Versailles in the agglomération (borough) of Saint Quentin en Yveline. The town, which has been twinned with Denton since 1993 has a population of around 36,000, about the same as Denton.

Editors Notes:

New Charter formed in 1999 as the new landlords to own and manage homes transferred from Tameside council in Greater Manchester. With a turnover of £90million a year and a workforce of 800, New Charter is one of the region’s largest registered providers of social housing, and is regulated by the Tenant Services Authority, a Government watchdog. By incorporating Gedling Homes, the Group owns 18,600 homes. It was named in the Sunday Times best 100 companies to work for in 2011.