On behalf of West Bergholt Parish Council, I know all my fellow Councillors and staff join the millions worldwide in mourning the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and sends its condolences to the Royal Family.
 
The Union Jack is being flown at half-mast at the Orpen Memorial Hall and flowers may be laid at its base, we only ask that you remove all plastic wrappings first. There will be no formal notices by the Council until after the funeral, but a Book of Condolence is open for all at St Mary the Virgin Church in New Church Road.
 
This year’s village festival in June with its royal theme, beacon lighting and tree planting was part of the nation’s celebration of Her Majesty’s seventy-year reign but seems a lifetime away now with the sad news in the last week.
 
I write this some days after the condolences of others have been published, and for that I offer apologies having been out of the country but stood not yards from the President of Italy when a holding a minute’s silence, recognition perhaps of the respect that leaders around the world had for her.
 
It is also perhaps as poignant for me as many others in that my mother was the same age our Queen but died at half her age, although both her and my father had the privilege of meeting the Queen at Buckingham Palace because of their charity work.
 
We will remember the Queen for her unfailing devotion to public life and the stability she has offered over the last seventy years, and that we must still celebrate whilst mourning her loss.
 
Like many others I wish King Charles III’s reign will be as successful as his mother’s whilst we offer him our thoughts at the loss of not only his Queen but his mother and grandmother to his sons.
 
 
Brian Butcher
Chair – West Bergholt Parish Council