City thanks residents for response to queen's death

Staff congratulated too

The leader of Exeter City Council has praised its staff and the city’s residents for the way they marked the queen’s death and proclamation of the king.

A report to the council’s executive on Tuesday [4 October] outlined how the events involved with ‘Operation London Bridge’ cost the council £31,000, excluding staffing costs.

The majority of the money went towards showing the state funeral on a big screen in Northernhay Gardens, with Exeter believed to be one of only a few local councils who did this – particularly in the south west.

Just over a thousand people gathered to watch the event, while a further 2-3,000 people watched the local proclamation of the new monarch outside Exeter Cathedral on Sunday 11 September.

Additional state funeral screenings were held at St James’ Park (estimated 150 viewing), Sandy Park (estimated 300 viewing) and the University of Exeter (estimated 450 viewing).

The council said due to these events “the city became of local and national media interest, boosting the city’s reputation and standing in the local community.

Exeter City Council leader Phil Bialyk 

“The level of public engagement shown for all of these events, recognises the hard work that many within the council, as well as its partners in the city, put in to support Exeter’s long tradition of delivering high standards of events.”

Council leader Phil Bialyk (Labour, Exwick) added: “It was a marvellous performance by all the team, all council workers: street cleaners, bin [staff], the parks team who got Northernhay right.

“Also, the work on the day of the proclamation … we weren’t anticipating nearly 3,000 or just over 3,000 people when we came out that door. I was so pleased to see so many councillors involved. I think the city showed good respect on that day.

Cllr Bialyk also thanked the city’s lord mayor, Cllr Yolonda Henson, who took a book of condolence to retirement homes, the RD&E Hospital and Exeter Prison.

“We really demonstrated that Exeter is at the heart of the civic processes here in Devon,” he said.