Hertfordshire - Dubbed the crucible of home grown terra descendants of the Home Counties town have been traced to a notorious leper colony that mutated soon after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.
This weekend an announcement by the Department for Culture (sic), Mediocrity and Spots says the famous Hertfordshire conurbation is to be twinned with Libya's Benghazi-By-The-Kazi.
Notorious tyrants are apparently common to both towns and have played a major part in the decision to link them for posteriority.
The two towns will now compete in the annual hanging basket case competition made popular during Colonel Gaddafi's daze (sic) when he was a junior councillor on the Royston Parish Council circa 1965.
Local politicians hope the move will ease Foreign Office travel restrictions imposed on Royston since the Black Death of 1975.
"At the moment nobody wants to travel to this part of Hertfordshire," a council official commented today, "until the FO says it's safe.
"Hopefully once they have ironed out our little local difficulties it will be an even nicer place than before."
The move has frightened some, however, amid predictions Roystonians will now emigrate in droves to Libya, buoyed by reports of the stunning welfare benefits on offer following the latest EU dole handouts diktat.
Colonel Gaddafi is 69.
