Last week the Lord Mayor, Councillor Graham Latty, and the Lady Mayoress, Councillor Pat Latty, visited Leeds’ partner city of Dortmund to take part in the annual cultural festival, ‘DORTBUNT! One City! Many Faces’.
The festival aims to celebrate the wide cultural diversity in Dortmund with a range of music and cultural performances taking place across the city. This year was the fourth edition of the festival which began in 2016.
As well as participating in the festival, the Lord Mayor met with Dortmund’s other sister cities and signed the Golden Book – an important part of the civic welcome in Dortmund.
In parallel to the civic programme Leeds City Council officers, Lee Arnell and Emma Slater, have been taking part in a leadership development programme organised by Dortmund. This focused on a number of city development topics including economic development, planning and digitisation.
Following the trip to Dortmund, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress visited Leeds’ other German partner city, Siegen. This included a tour of the city in a traditional ‘Hubbelbumler’ bus and discussions around Siegen’s recent planning and regeneration projects.
Commenting on the trip, the Lord Mayor said: “This visit was a great opportunity to renew ties and strengthen links with our German partner cities of Siegen and Dortmund.
“Twinning still has an important role to play in today’s city development – through cooperation and sharing knowledge we can learn from one another and overcome common challenges that our cities face.”
Check out some of the photos from the visit in the gallery below: