A WEST Devon twinning group has accused the borough council of impolite conduct, following a recent visit to Germany. Club Wesseling members have just returned from a trip to Wesseling in Germany, during which they enjoyed a reception at the town burgermeister?s chamber. Committee member Maureen Watts said: ?Imagine our surprise when he informed us he had contacted West Devon Borough Council, the original founders of our club, to come to Germany for a celebration of the twinning, along with the heads of other towns in Europe they are twinned with. ?He told us that he had contacted them on more than one occasion by letter, but had not had a reply, not even a courtesy of thank you but no thank you.? Mrs Watts said the burgermeister asked the group if they knew a reason why the council should have ignored the invitation. ?All we could do was apologise,? said Mrs Watts. ?He then produced a large flagon of locally made beer and a selection of presents which had been prepared on the off chance they have turned up. The beer was labelled ?Brewed for West Devon?, so they decided to give them to our chairman,? she said. Mrs Watts said ultimately, the club profited from the council?s absence, because the committee decided to raffle the beer and raised £79 for club funds. She said: ?I would just like to know in this day and age, how we are supposed to feel when as a member of Europe, even our own council cannot conduct themselves in a correct manner?? A spokesman for West Devon Borough Council said: ?Sadly, we have no trace of the letters from Wesseling and according to our records, the last correspondence we received from them was in June 2004.? The spokesman said the council always went to great lengths to respond to all letters and never ignored invitations, always responding even when the mayor could not attend. ?In the case of letters from Wesseling, replies may take slightly longer because of the need to have the incoming letters translated into English, which a member of staff kindly does in her own time. ?We will write to the burgermeister explaining our apparent lack of response, as obviously, we have no wish to cause offence.?