Flying the flag of success

26 August 2008

As heroic Olympians touched down in Britain yesterday with a host of gold medals, Bedfordshire County Council joined the celebrations for Olympic success by flying the Olympic Handover Flag at its offices in County Hall, Bedford.

The flag, one of only 500 flags delivered to locations including local authorities, HM Armed Forces and Embassies and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices around the world, will fly outside County Hall for the next five weeks.

Victoria Pendleton, who claimed her own Gold for the Women’s Cycling Sprint last week hails from Bedfordshire so the county has an extra special reason to celebrate locally.

Following the closing ceremony in Beijing on Sunday 24 August, London has now become the official Olympic Games Host City, starting the countdown to the London Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012. 

Councillor John Street, Bedfordshire County Council Cabinet Member for Customer Services said: "Bedfordshire County Council has been selected to fly the Olympic flag which is a great achievement, no doubt helped enormously by Victoria’s success by winning the gold. The flag will serve to mark this excellent event and the Council is very proud. We all look forward to the games when they arrive in London in 2012.”

ENDS