As an ex-councillor and twice Mayor I have been involved in the organising of Hadleigh's celebrations for Her Majesty's Golden and Diamond Jubilee and am therefore well aware of the vast amount of work needed both in the organisation of the events and at the events themselves.

The current Council appeared to be late in organising this weekends events, probably because a few councillors have taken to 'filibustering ' the meetings so effectively that the Council runs out of time and the Agenda is not completed. However in a few short months the Mayor, Town Clerk, Projects Officer and a small group of members of the Church organised the two events held this weekend.

I did not attend the Beacon Lighting but understand it was a good event. The Mayor and his son, (an ex fireman and a Fire Engineer) prepared, lit and extinguished the Beacon.

The Council's office staff organised the event, prepared and cleared up after it.

On Friday morning the same small group organised the tables and lay out in the Deanery Garden and members of the Church on Saturday set out the Bunting.

Regardless of the rather damp conditions it was a well attended and happy event. Using the Deanery Gardens ensured that the children present could run around in safety and enjoy the activities laid on for them, the 'Circus' training appeared to go down very well, maybe some of us adults would have liked to join in.

The Food concessionaires and Bar appear to have been well used and the Musical entertainments were at a very pleasurable level.

I would like to thank the Dean and his wife for allowing the garden to be used. The Deanery Garden over the years has been the venue for many community events and it was great to be back in there again.

I am carefully not naming the helpers as it is inevitable that I would leave a name out, but they worked hard to make this an enjoyable event. However I intend to name two workers, the Town Clerk and the Project Manager.

They have received bad publicity in the last few months, mainly I believe from people who do not understand their role, but on Sunday they worked all day to ensure the event ran smoothly, including the unenviable job of frequently emptying the rubbish bins and cleaning the toilets, and the more pleasurable job of dissecting the Jubilee cake into over 200 slices.

I anticipate that at the next Council Meeting the few 'dissenting' councillors will make adverse comments about the event and the staff,

I believe that we members of the public that attended the events will say Thank you and Well Done.

Jan Byrne