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AGM 2024

Raymond Hagger • Feb 04, 2024

Heather Perrot elected Chairman

***REMINDER MEMBERSHIP DUES 2024 NOW DUE***

Chairmans Report by Ray Hagger

Our constitution only allows me the Chairman to serve a three-year term and although I am today stepping down as Chairman it does not look like I am being allowed to return to the back benches.

With the support of the entire committee, I am pleased to share some achievements during my Chairmanship which include:

  • Re-establishing our link with Saint-Maur-Des Fossés following the winding up of the Adult Exchange Group and 22 of us will be visiting Saint Maur in April. I must thank John Russel and his sub committee in particular Maralyn Green and her friend Danny in Saint-Maur and David Roche,
  • A 36% increase in our membership over the last year alone whilst several other Twinning Associations in West Sussex have folded or are struggling to Survive. We now have 75 individual members.
  • A new website and blog which is constantly being kept up to date and attracting many visitors and some new members. The Website includes details of all events including our monthly foreign films. I would encourage all members to save to their phone home screen or computer desktop and to visit regularly. Please also feel free to share content with friends or on social media.
  • A new interpretation board with the support of the Bognor Regis Heritage & Arts Trust in Place Saint Maur following protracted negotiations with ADC over nearly two years.
  • Relocation of a bench donated by our twin town of Weil Am Rhein from a location near the Regis Centre bins the Boule Piste Hotham Park. We are now negotiating with the town council to arrange for the bench to be repainted/stained.


This year at well as visiting Saint-Maur-Des-Fossés, in July we are also hosting visitors from both Weil Am Rhein and Trebbin and we have just formed a sub- committee to organise a programme of activities. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, please speak to or email Heather or me.


I would also like to recognise the work Bob and Terry have undertaken over the last twenty years through their company Felpham Language Travel Limited in facilitating school visits from our twin town. Sadly the time has come to retire and to close the business but Bob and Terry remain on the committee and I am sure we will find ways to ensure the activities continue and we are also looking for families happy to host our young visitors from our win towns.


Social events continue to be important not just to raise money but to encourage contact and friendship amongst our members. We have planned a full programme for the coming year and Heather has put together a Social Programme which I hope you have bought with you, as she will be talking about it later, and perhaps reflect of some of the key highlights over the last year. I would however like to thank Maralyn Green for hosting the morning of Christmas Cheer, which was well attended, and visitors included our town mayor and of course Santa himself. A wonderful way to end the year.


Attendance at our Foreign films is on the increase and memorable films including “a Yak in the classroom” from Bhutan, and the award winning 2023 “The anatomy of a fall” which has been nominated at this years Global Globe as Best Film. And more recently the German film Blind “Date with Life”, an autobiographical comedy..  I would like to thank Mac Keight for all his efforts in keeping the Foreign Film programme on track.


The German Language group continues to meet monthly and if anyone would like further information, please speak to David Howard whose details are in the social programme. This group is for Fluent Speakers only, and not suitable for beginners.

Since the last AGM I have been appointed the Representative of the British-German Association for West Sussex and to date I have held two online meetings involving most of the British-German Town Twinning Associations in West Sussex. For the first meeting I was able to persuade the deputy head of mission at the German Embassy Ruediger Bohn to speak. I have also met with the Dr Markus Grüneisl, Chief Executive of BMW Group in the UK Managing Director of BMW in the UK followed by the BMW Mini plant at Cowley near Oxford.


Our association continues to remain active and innovative, and we continue to look at ways to encourage a younger membership to ensure the association’s future success. Since Brexit I believe our role as a twinning association is more important than ever to ensure we maintain links with our European partners.

Finally, I would again like to thank all the committee for their support and in particular Heather as Vice -Chairman without whom I could not do this job. I would also like to acknowledge the support of our President Sandra Daniels who is stepping down from the committee at this AGM but remains our President.


Ray Hagger

Chairman, Bognor Regis Twinning Association.


AGM Key Highlights:

  • Heather Perrot Elected Chairman
  • Ray Hagger Elected Vice-Chairman
  • David Roche replaces Roger Leate as Membership Secretary
  • Mac Keight Elected to the committee
  • All Other Committee Positions Unchanged and members re-elected.
  • Sandra Daniels stepped back from the committee but remains our President
  • Membership Fee increased to £10 per person (No discount for Couples) - Our first increase for over 10 years.

Spring Ramble

By David Roche • 20 May, 2024
On Saturday May 18 th 13 BRTA members walked 4 and a half miles from outside the Ship Inn Itchenor along the harbour coastal path to West Wittering and then back to Itchenor cross country. The weather forecast was for light rain but there was only one rain shower during the walk and the sun came out towards the end. The walkers then enjoyed a good lunch at The Ship Inn Itchenor before going home.

St Maur-des-Fossés exchange visit – 2024

By Maralyn Green • 19 May, 2024
Twenty adults from Bognor recently enjoyed a very successful French exchange visit to Bognor’s twin town of St Maur-des-Fossés, near Paris. Travelling by Eurostar to Paris and then by RER to the nearby town of St Maur-des-Fossés, guests were welcomed by their individual hosts into their homes for the duration of the visit. Not everyone could speak French but, as many of the hosts spoke good English, careful placement meant everyone felt relaxed and happy during their stay. A programme for the visit, organised by Les Amis de Bognor Regis, included an outing to the Chateau de Vincennes, a former fortress and royal residence, with a talk given on the history of the castle. Guests also had the opportunity to visit the Abbaye de Saint-Maur, an old monastery, which is mostly in ruins, but a guided tour took visitors into the cellar and underground passageways not usually open to the public. It wasn’t all monuments as St Maur-des-Fossés is the town in Ile-de-France with the largest number of food markets and a visit to one of these, a regular shopping venue for locals, was also on the programme. All have a huge range of high quality, fresh food products, with the market at La Varenne being the first to have over 100 traders. A veritable feast for the eyes and enough to make one very hungry! There were also opportunities for visiting Paris, where the ongoing reconstruction of the burnt-out cathedral of Notre Dame could be seen. After a devastating fire in 2019, during which the roof and spire collapsed, the historic renovation of Notre Dame is now nearly 90% complete but at an estimated cost of 700 million Euros. Preparations for the 2024 Olympics, to be held this August in Paris, were also well underway and visible throughout the city centre. Riverboat trips down the Seine, walking through Les Tuileries, the Ile de Paris, the South Bank, visiting the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides (Napoleon’s tomb), Les Halles, Galeries Lafayette, were all places visited by some of us on our city excursions. On the last evening in St Maur-des-Fossés, the local association of Les Amis de Bognor Regis treated all 20 visitors from Bognor, with their French hosts, to a sumptuous three course meal in a local restaurant. Speeches from each side were made and thanks given to those who had helped make this exchange visit such a success, after a hiatus of several years, when the exchange visits had to be suspended due to Covid. Special thanks are owed to Mr. John Russell, whose tireless efforts for more than a year, on behalf of the Bognor Regis Twinning Association, resulted in a very successful visit. It is hoped that this very enjoyable visit will now form the basis for the return of regular annual exchanges and that friendships, old and new, that have been reinforced or begun, will continue the long-standing connections between our twin towns. 

D-Day 80 Years On - Talk by Dave Smith

By Maralyn Green • 19 May, 2024
D-Day 80 Years On D-Day 80 Years On was the subject of a very detailed talk, given recently by popular historian, Dave Smith. Planning for D-Day actually took place not far from Bognor and very close to Portsmouth. It was at Southwick House, which stands on the northern slopes of Portsdown Hill, where the preparations for Operation Overlord were laid. It was there that General Dwight Eishenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, took the decision to launch the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944. You can still visit the house and see the Map Room but have to make an appointment to do so. The date of 6 June was chosen because it fulfilled the requirements necessary for the beach landings. The weather forecast was good, there would be a full moon and, importantly, a half tide. Originally 2 other dates were considered, 5 June and 19 June. 5 June was discounted because of the bad weather forecast for the day before and 19 June was deemed too late. Several million men, tanks, landing craft, etc., were waiting secretly, in multiple locations, across the South Coast of England and there was a very real risk that waiting too long might lead to discovery. So, the date of 6 June became the date of D Day. This was fortunate as the weather turned out to be appalling on 19 June. Dave Smith asked the audience what the D stood for in D Day. The answer was that it stands for Day. Apparently there were many D Days (Day Days), a name for the beginning of Operations during the War, but 6 June is the only one remembered by everyone. Much effort had gone into covering up the true destination of D Day. Double agents fed wrong information back to Germany about possible invasions at Calais in July or even on the Norway coast. Inflatable tanks, trucks, airplanes and landing craft had been placed as decoys, even as far North as Scotland, to deceive reconnaissance aircraft. Decoy dummy paratroopers, known as Ruperts, were also dropped at 4 different locations on the morning of 6 June to lure the Germans away from the beaches of Normandy. The dummies self-destructed on landing. These were just a few facts from Dave Smith’s presentation as his enthusiasm for his subject gave us many further insights into the planning before the invasion, the intricate detail of the invasion itself and what must have been a logistical nightmare to get everyone and everything to where it was needed before, during and in the days after the invasion. Dave Smith also recounted stories of a few of the soldiers, who had been part of D Day, as well as the personality clashes between some of the leading organisers of Operation Overlord. Roll on next year for another of Dave’s brilliant talks!
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