The former mayor of the northern town Scheemda has returned the royal honour he was given on his 70th birthday, after other mayors said it under-valued his achievements.

Jan Leegwater was appointed a member of the Order of Oranje Nassau but should have been made at least a knight, according to his colleagues.
‘I don’t like honours, they are far to subjective,’ Leegwater told the Volkskrant on Friday. ‘A professor who has simply done his job lecturing for 30 years is appointed a commander and someone who has done heaps of volunteer work alongside his regular job is fobbed off with ordinary membership.’
Leegwater has helped raise hundreds of thousands of euros for charity.
The former mayor stressed it was the anger of fellow mayors on his fund-raising football team that led to him to give back the award.