Everything was well in hand when I reached the town hall at about half past eight this morning. There wasn’t really anything for me to do – all that was going on was last minute checks to see that the sound system was ready for Sunday, distribute black armbands to councillors as they came in, and wait for final details as to dates, times, and protocols.
Evidently, there had been some drama in the morning, with a couple of suspect packages being found in the town and some sort of alarm in St Ives, but nothing seemed to come of it. The chair and deputy chair of the district council came to the town hall along with a communications officer from the district and, fortuitously, a photographer. The photographer had just happened to be passing, intending to take photos of the floral tributes, when the chair came past with his floral tribute to lay outside the town hall. We sat and talked for a short while in the parlour, and then I, the deputy mayor, the chair, and the deputy chair went and laid our flowers. There were already quite a few floral tributes and a couple of drawings that had been placed.
At eleven o’clock, I went outside with the deputy mayor, deputy chair, and a couple of other town councillors to hear the bells tolling. There were quite a few people who came to the market square and stayed for all ninety-four peals.
The deputy mayor and I were kindly driven around by another councillor to deliver books of condolences to various schools, care homes, religious buildings, and other community facilities in town. That took two hours.
We then returned to the town hall, had a coffee, and went home.