The sudden, sad news of the death of Her Majesty The Queen meant something else to many  council officers, whether working in civic support roles, communications or building management or as chief executives: ‘London Bridge' plans, that have been carefully crafted over years and kept confidential, would be put swiftly into operation.

It should be no surprise that the Government and a wide range of other organisations, including councils as Category One responders under the Civil Contingencies Act, should plan for such an event. Arguably, there has been excessive secrecy about the existence and some of the content of such plans, with stern injunctions to brief only those people ‘who need to know'.

Thus Union flags were quickly lowered to half mast, all flags other than national flags taken down, books of condolence were opened the following morning (locally, stocks had been provided years in advance by the Lord Lieutenant's office), web sites were turned to black pages with images of Her Late Majesty and statements were issued by mayors and chairmen expressing deep regret on behalf of their councils and citizens.

The first coordination meeting, bringing together representatives of the Lieutenancy and High Sheriff, council chief executives and the Bishop, was held at 1945, only an hour and a quarter after the official announcement at Buckingham Palace. Perhaps it was inevitable but some aspects of the well-laid plans did not survive in practice. The first communication from the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) did not arrive until just before 2100.

There was some confusion about which day was to be treated as D Day. The Proclamation was expected to be on D+1 but, in the event, Friday – the day after the announcement of Her Majesty's death – was treated as D Day. This meant the Proclamation of the Accession at St James's Palace would be on Saturday. Surprisingly, the text of the proclamation was not received from the High Sheriffs' Association until early Saturday afternoon – why could the wording not have been settled a long time in advance? – and had an error in the date, fortunately spotted by a counterpart in another council. Settings on our firewall quarantined messages because it contained the words ‘God' and ‘Lord', but I managed to obtain a copy via another route – thank goodness for private email accounts!

Proclamations in the devolved nations and by the High Sheriffs were always planned to be on the following day, at 12 noon and 1pm respectively, so this meant that they would be on Sunday. In shire counties, borough and district councils would organise local readings of the Proclamation later in the afternoon. Locally, the plan had been for these to happen an hour later but four districts chose to hold them at 3pm and only Worcester and Wyre Forest held it at 2pm. With the county Proclamation outside the Guildhall in Worcester expected to conclude at about 1.20pm, this made for a well-timed drive from Worcester to Kidderminster with my chairman, arriving with 10 minutes to spare.

Pageantry at the county Proclamation was impressive: uniformed civic officers of the city council, various representatives of armed forces and emergency services - including more swords than I have seen in one place for some time, worn by serving and retired Army officers - the Bishop of Worcester, a trumpet call from a policeman to herald the arrival of the Lord Lieutenant, a band and a choir. About 500 members of the public watched in the sun and were clearly appreciative of the significance of the occasion.

A smaller crowd was outside Kidderminster town hall - perhaps 200. The assistance of the town council's staff in enabling the event was much appreciated. While there was significantly less pomp, those present welcomed the opportunity to hear the Proclamation locally even though they would probably all have seen and heard the event in London the previous day. I gave a brief welcome before a Deputy Lieutenant set the scene and the chairman read the Proclamation, a copy having been handed to him by the High Sheriff in Worcester.

Singing the national anthem with unfamiliar words for the second time that day, I reflected on how no one in local government today would have experienced the Proclamation in 1952 and how – statistically – it is unlikely that any of us will sing ‘God Save the Queen' again in our lifetimes. Local government has responded magnificently to the sad circumstances, quickly organising important local events such as these and ensuring that Her Majesty's passing and the Accession of King Charles III have been appropriately commemorated.

Ian Miller is chief executive of Wyre Forest DC

@IanM65