A GERMAN delegate has jetted in to warn against scrapping funding for Weymouth and Portland's twinning societies.

Marie-Luise Wehlack, chairman of the Deutsch- Britischer Club in Holz-wickede, stepped on the plane after hearing the borough council say £2,000 a year could be saved by axing funding for the Holzwickede Society and the Louviers Society.

The cash is spent on official receptions and mayoral hotel bills and travel expenses.

Ms Wehlack said the proposals would mean cancelling an April visit to celebrate 21 years of twinning.

She said: "It's a real pity.

"We appreciate everything they've done for us.

"Our mayor is waiting for an invitation. How can I tell him you're not really welcome because there is no reception for you?

"He and other officials wanted to come in April and it is not really fair."

Pauline Crump, chairman of the Holzwickede Society, said: "If we are forced to cancel all official aspects of the 21st anniversary visit, it would cause us and the town major embarrassment, especially after the extent and the quality of the celebration put on in Germany by the Deutsch-Britischer Club in September.

"Nobody on the audit committee recommending the cuts appears to have any contact with us or knowledge of our activities and the cuts appear to have been recommended simply on the basis of reducing expenditure without consideration of any cost-benefit analysis."

Mrs Crump said twinning boosted the tourist economy.

Catherine Irving, chairman of the Weymouth Portland Louviers Society, said: "It's the borough that is twinned with Louviers and not the society. It is a binding and mutual agreement to twin both councils.

"It is for these reasons that the borough council has, quite properly, funded the management of the arrangements and the programme for the visits of the mayor of Louviers and other council officials to our borough and the reciprocal visit of our mayor to Louviers."

She added: "We cannot possibly undertake the costs of accommodation, care and entertainment for the Mayor of Louviers and other official guests during their visits to the borough without council funding."

Today's management committee will be told they must make savings to balance the books.

A report says they must find £1.12 million because of extra costs. These include inflation, pensions and free travel for pensioners.