A NORTH Wales council has been invited to send one of its councillors to a prestigious Buckingham Palace garden party to mark the coronation of King Charles III.
The royal honour, for Bangor City Council, comes just a week after the king’s royal jewellers offered to restore the council’s priceless but damaged 140-year-old civic mace.
Councillor Steve Bell, who represents the Hirael ward as an independent, and is owner of the High Street shop All Sewn Up, will now travel to London representing Bangor.
He said the day will be a mix of civic and family pride.
“Curiously enough, both my grandfather and grandmother were invited to attend similar Royal garden parties in their own right in recognition of their respective service to the RAF,” said Cllr Bell.
“To represent the city of Bangor at this extra prestigious event will be a very true honour to me and the city.”
Only three Royal Garden Parties are hosted at Buckingham Palace annually, but this year’s May event, only three days after the Westminster Abbey coronation, will be the most prestigious.
Queen Victoria gifted the Corporation of Bangor Royal Charter in 1884 and then Prince of Wales, King Charles, was Chancellor of Bangor University.
Fellow councillor Mark Roberts will be taking Bangor’s ceremonial civic mace to Royal jewellers Wartski of St James, London soon.
It comes after the family firm, which was founded in Bangor in 1865 and which has held royal warrants since the era of King Edward VII, heard of the mace’s dire state and offered to repair it.
“Two royal contacts with Bangor in a matter of a week must be quite unique,” said Cllr Roberts.
“I think Cllr Bell has the advantage; a Buckingham Palace royal garden party.
“The best I can hope for is a British Rail sandwich,” he quipped.
