The twinning between Pendle and Beit Leed in Palestine is now firmly in place, with the Mayor of Pendle accepting the invitation to become President of the Pendle Palestine Twinning Group.
At a recent meeting of the group a letter of confirmation was signed by the Mayor, Coun. Asjad Mahmood and the chairman of the PPTG, Richard MacSween.
This follows the decision last December by Pendle Council, already twinned with Creil in France and Marl in Germany, to add the link with Beit Leed.
Mr MacSween said: “It’s great that the Mayor has agreed to do this and shows Pendle Council is serious about the twinning. Our group is doing all the administrative work involved and there is no cost whatsoever to Pendle Council or the taxpayer. It is disgraceful that one political party has been suggesting otherwise.
‘In fact, any money we receive is voluntarily donated by the public and I’m glad to say many people have been very happy to contribute. Obviously they are happy to ignore the few who seem to think friendship links are a bad thing!”
In June, 24 Palestinian and UK students will be coming to Pendle for several days and working together on a project to help links between the two countries.
Mr MacSweeen said: “This is an ambitious project for us but will show what twinning can achieve. We are grateful to all those people, including of course Pendle councillors, who support this twinning and can see the benefits it will bring.”