THE New Year Honours List provides the usual fodder for debate about who deserves to be featured and who doesn't.

There are those who clearly justify their gongs and those whose inclusion is, at best, questionable. That will always be the case.

But here in the North-East, few could argue with the CBE granted to Brendan Foster. He was a hero on the track in the Seventies - as European champion, Commonwealth champion, and world record holder - but it is his vision in creating the Great North Run for which he will be best remembered.

No other single event comes close to the run for putting the North-East on the map and it is now impossible to imagine the region without it.

But for all he has done to promote the North-East, we hope Brendan will forgive us for nominating another local hero as our pick of this year's honours list.

The word "genius" is greatly overused but in the case of Norman Cornish, it is surely merited. The 88-year-old former pitman from Spennymoor has become famed for his wonderfully iconic images of working- class life in the North.

Signing on as an apprentice at the Dean and Chapter colliery in Ferryhill at 14 and serving 30 years underground, Norman's success has been hard-earned and enduring.

His ability may lack the televisual exposure of the likes of Michael Parkinson and Kylie Minogue, but it is a gift to cherish nonetheless.

The legacy of Norman Cornish will be here for a long time to come and his MBE is timely recognition of a rare talent indeed.