THE town of Liskeard has been awarded a prestigious international award at a summit event in Moldova for its work with Ukraine.

Earlier this month the mayor of Liskeard, Cllr Simon Cassidey, flew to Dănceni in Moldova after he was invited to attend the International Mayors’ Summit 2024.

The summit event, organised by the Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) and supported by partners such as Primaria Mea, Comunitatea Plus, CIPE and Cities 4 Cities, drew representative from all over the world to discuss collaborative progress in urban and rural developments.

It was said that the summit promised to be a milestone event with a special focus on rewarding exemplary city partnerships through the inaugural Power of Partnership Award.

The award was specially crafted by Petro Gronsky, a Ukrainian artist – it was designed to be given to those who had achieved in partnerships but also to inspire further collaboration among cities.

The summit celebrated a number of partnerships including; Mykolaiv (Ukraine) and Chełm (Poland), Vinnytsia (Ukraine) and Karlsruhe (Germany), Chortkiv (Ukraine) and Caravaggio (Italy), Kopychyntsi (Ukraine), Liskeard (UK) and Cavarzere (Italy) as many more.

Cllr Cassidy stood alongside the mayor of Liskeard twin town Kopychyntsi, Bogdan Kelichavyi, and the mayor of their twin town in Italy at the event.

Cllr Cassidy said: “As the only representative from the United Kingdom it was a privilege not only to represent Liskeard, but also to tell everyone about our town and its amazing people.  It was also an honour to talk about the amazing work that Cornwall & Devon sending love to Ukraine undertake.  I also got to spend some time talking to the Ukrainian ambassador to Moldova as well as the British ambassador. They both said how impressed they were with the commitment of the people of Devon and Cornwall in supporting Ukraine.”

Reflecting on the award being given to Liskeard, Cllr Cassidy said he felt ‘honoured’.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our amazing town and our relationship with our twin town of Kopychyntsi,” Cllr Cassidy added. “We received an International Award for Partnership, to honour the work we have done in building a relationship between our two communities.”