It's always been longer from Norwich to Lynn than it is from Lynn to Norwich because, for them, we're the western wastelands – forgotten and neglected.

And that's the number one reason why you must not allow West Norfolk to be ruled from anywhere other than West Norfolk.

And for that reason there is no doubt that for us the east/west split would be the best way forward for local government reorganisation.

It makes logical, geographical, commercial and economic sense for local government services here to concentrate on an area shared by the main towns of Lynn, Downham, Hunstanton, Swaffham, Fakenham, Wells, Thetford and smaller communities in between.

Norwich can keep Dereham and have Yarmouth. The idea that Hunstanton and Yarmouth should go together simply because they are both on the coast is madness.

To be fair only the county council supports the one council fits all option. Now why might that be, I wonder? There is no doubt that this super council for the entire county would be administered from Norwich, to the detriment of Lynn and West Norfolk.

Of all the other options the only two with merit are the east/west split and the east/west so-called doughnut which gives Thetford up to the east (no great loss there) and gives Norwich city its own unitary status (let them get on with it). But the loss of the population of Thetford and Dereham from west to east could make the east/west split untenable just on the basis of body count imbalance.

So undeniable logic brings me back to the conclusion that only the east/west split favoured by West Norfolk Council and, incidentally, the Lynn News, is the only sensible option.

It will produce one authority for all the current borough and county council functions and have the immense strengths of being a local service, locally based for local people.

That's why I'm urging you to email communications@West-Norfolk.gov.uk or write to Local Government Review Team, Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk, King's Court, Chapel Street, PE30 1JX and express your forthright views in favour of the east/west split option.

SIR ROY WILLIAMSON

Arise Sir Roy... well-known and much-loved Lynn News photographer Roy Williamson has been knighted in the birthday honours for his 50-year service to West Norfolk.

OK, not THE birthday honours list (The Queen's) but it's my birthday on Monday and what's good for Michael Parkinson (knighted by Her Majesty for 50 years in television) is good enough for our Roy.

No person at the Lynn News is better known in our community than Roy.

He has been taking photographs in West Norfolk for half a century, for most of that time for the Lynn News, from where, on Friday, he retired.

I have only known him a mere 20 years. But I can say with all sincerity a better bloke I have not yet met. Roy is salt of the earth goodness, written Norfolk right through, like seaside rock.

His nature is completely dependable – I have never seen him anything but joyful – and, professionally, always enthusiastic. And that takes some doing after 50 years at this job!

He can't tell a joke to save his life, but that has never stopped him trying, and he can always laugh like a drain at yours.

Well done Roy. Enjoy your boating and fishing and stay out from under Jill's feet!

...and sir mick

While I'm in the mood, a Purfleet knighthood, too, for another Lynn News stalwart, backroom boy Mick Sands.

Not quite as well-known publicly as Roy, Mick has also left the Lynn News, this time after a 40-year association, mainly in production departments.

He, too, is of the old school and sadly, like Roy, probably the last of a disappearing breed – considerate, conscientious, hard-working and kindly men of Norfolk. We'll miss them.