BBC reporter nominated for freedom of borough honour

Jill Bennett making one of the final broadcasts from the former BBC King's Lynn studio in 2022

One of the BBC’s longest-serving journalists has been nominated for a freedom of the borough award for her dedication to the community.

Jill Bennett, a founding member of BBC Radio Norfolk, worked for the corporation for 40 years before her retirement in February.

She spent 25 of those years covering King's Lynn and West Norfolk as a district reporter.

She would be the first journalist to be given the honour, and only the fourth woman to hold the title, since its inception in 1901.

Jill Bennett with Lynn historian Paul Richards, who has also received the freedom honour

"I'm in extremely and intimidatingly grand company, because the last one was the late Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth," she said.

The former reporter has been put forward to become an Honorary Freeman of the Borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk - the highest award the local council can bestow.

"It is a great honour and I'm very pleased that a journalist should be recognised," she said.

"I'm not the only journalist who has worked very hard in this area.

"Many others have covered it and perhaps part of the freedom is a recognition of their work as well as mine."

Jill Bennett helped to launch Radio Norfolk in 1980

Originally from Pin Mill in Suffolk, she was inspired to go into broadcasting by her father, Bob Roberts, a skipper of one of the last commercial sailing barges, who appeared regularly on the BBC as a folk singer and storyteller.

Ms Bennett trained as a journalist in Colchester, Essex.

After settling in Norfolk in the 1970s she joined the Eastern Daily Press newspaper as its local government reporter.

In April 1980 she became a reporter at the emerging BBC Radio Norfolk.

Jill Bennett said speaking to people outside Sandringham House paying their respects to the late Queen in 2022 was one of her career memories

She said highlights of her career included interviewing her childhood hero, David Attenborough in Cley, covering the 2013 tidal surge when King's Lynn was threatened by flooding, and speaking to mourners at Sandringham after the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022.

The award, which can be given to organisations as well as individuals, has only two living recipients: the historian Dr Paul Richards and businessman Sir Richard Jewson.

It is also held by the Royal Air Force at Marham, the Royal Anglian Regiment and the 42F Squadron Air Training Corps based at King's Lynn.

The council said the award was in recognition of her service to the borough.

It was, it said, for "her commitment to representing the voices and stories of people in West Norfolk" through her reporting for local radio, her interest in local history and her writing, as well as her music, which has included organising musical events and playing the fiddle for The King’s Morris.

A special council meeting is planned for 17 June, where members are expected to vote to approve the appointment, which has cross-party support.

Jill with David Clayton, the former managing editor of BBC Radio Norfolk, celebrating the station's 20th birthday

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