In its 60th year, the Isle of Wight Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, along with all the other English AONBs, has had a name change - it is now the Isle of Wight National Landscape.

Much has been written about the bold new promises that go along with this change.

Bold indeed given the 36 per cent cut in funding these precious landscapes have suffered in the last ten years.

Did you know that all 34 national landscapes in England, put together, cost the taxpayer less than one medium-sized secondary school? But don't get me started.

When I heard the news my first thought went to something quite different - the loss of a 'knob'.

In my time working at the council I sat in many meetings listening to people talking about the AONB. And sometimes, the ANOB.

Are you one of those who couldn't articulate four simple letters without stumbling over them?

Were you a powerful politician, an angry complainant, or a highly-paid consultant - all on a mission to tell us poor countryside wonks how to do our jobs?

If you were, and you managed to say 'ANOB' instead of 'AONB' then you probably thought we didn't notice it, but believe you me, we did.

Bonus points for anyone who actually said it as 'a knob' instead of spelling it out. You would be surprised how many people fell into this simple linguistic trap.

A shibboleth, from the Old Testament story, is a word which is hard to pronounce for one group of people, but easy for another. In the Bible, those who could not say the word were put to the sword. In the council, the penalty for anobbery was no less unpleasant - surreptitious derision.

I'm not foolish enough to imagine that AONBs, and indeed ANOBs, will never be heard of again.

No, one of the main principles of the national landscapes is conservation, so it should be no surprise that those involved with them are fairly good with heritage matters.

We won't suddenly stop calling the Isle of Wight National Landscape an 'AONB' any more than we have stopped talking about the Isle of Wight County Council, which passed on in 1995.

So I'm entertained to think that, years from now, some inattentive orator might still accidentally say 'ANOB' just occasionally.

Perhaps as well as conserving rural crafts like coppicing and hedgelaying, the Isle of Wight National Landscape will one day stage reenactments of ancient council meetings where crucial decisions about our wonderful Island landscape were made.

Grants to local thespians would help recreate the historical scenes of red-cheeked yeomen declaiming with a straight face "A knob!", whilst others, dressed as faceless council bureaucrats, secretly smirk at each other and roll their eyes.

I'll be in the front row.

It is time to bid farewell to the ANOB, as it passes into history.

Actually, I'll quite miss it now it's gone.

I don't suppose many people will start talking about National Scanned Apes but you never know.