13/10/04

Thirty-five years ago, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Redcar, Eston and South Bank were unified and Teesside County Council was formed. We would have a stronger voice, improved services and lower costs.

In practical terms, the results were different. There was an increase in the number of local government employees. The industrial heart of Teesside was perceived to be the principal beneficiary, to the detriment of the rural and coastal fringes.

A decade or so later, Teesside was enlarged to create Cleveland County Council. The bureaucracy grew again. At one time Cleveland had 22,500 employees - ten per cent of the population. The council was seen as remote and being run for its own convenience, not for the benefit of the communities it was created to serve.

About 15 years ago, Cleveland County Council was dismantled and the unitary authorities were created in its place. Local government returned and once again we had local officers in local offices who were aware of the needs of the local communities.

Having dealt with local government at many levels during the last 35 years, I conclude that the larger the authority, the more remote from community involvement it becomes. The more remote it becomes, then like the EU, the less its perceived relevance to the public at large.

It is inevitable, no matter how diligent its officers and members, that an assembly will be seen to benefit the major conurbations once again to the detriment of the smaller communities. - Peter Sotheran, Redcar.

I RECEIVED a letter from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

It was a circular which pointed out that an error had been found in a previous circular about the regional assembly referendum.

It states: "The Government will pay the upfront costs needed to realise these savings." As I have always been told that the Government does not have money, it uses public money, should not the sentence have been: "The taxpayer will pay the upfront costs needed to realise these savings"? - Barry Wood, Edmondsley.

THE North-East has less than four weeks left to make an historic and positive decision for change. The people of the region, for so long ignored by London-based governments going back to the Jarrow March and before, are being given the opportunity to make a positive change for themselves.

London is too far away for civil servants to always know what is best for the people of the North-East. The region needs to make decisions for itself.

A vote Yes will allow people in North-East England to have a real say over their future. A vote for the No campaign will offer nothing more than the staus quo, a staus quo which has failed the people of the region for so long.

I hope that people in North-East have the courage to vote Yes for a positive change in their lives in the upcoming referendum. - Name and address supplied, Co Durham.

IT is common sense that only if we have one "all purpose" council for all of County Durham, and indeed one for Northumberland, there will be tremendous cost savings. Don't forget to use your second vote on the ballot paper. - County Councillor John Shuttleworth, Durham.

SOME people seem to live on another planet to me.

We have campaigned for a regional assembly for more than 20 years. We expected opposition from the Conservatives, but there was also substantial opposition within the Labour Party and from the civil service. John Prescott, to his credit, was a tireless campaigner for it.

Now our efforts have paid off and we are going to have the referendum, which is a democratic opportunity for people to say whether they want an assembly or not.

Yet people like R Harbon (HAS, Oct 11) fulminate about the Government "imposing" this on us. What planet does he or she live on?

It is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I think people would be very foolish to turn it down. If we do, we cannot expect people to take notice of the North-East in future. The rest of the country will think: "You had your chance and you blew it."

But, it is a democratic vote. People like R Harbon are free to vote no. No one is forcing them to do anything. - David Taylor-Gooby, Peterlee.

THE proposed powers to be devolved to the North-East are a good first step in enabling North-East people to have the power over important community issues such as public health, transport, regenerating communities, tourism and planning matters.

That is why the No campaign's arguments seem so prejudiced against North-East people. At best the No campaign is characterised by people of the right or extreme right of centre. There does not appear to be a member of the moderate or silent majority amongst their ranks.

Its leader, John Elliott, sits on a couple of unelected quangos and wants to keep that system in place. Those pushing an English parliament are doing so from Nottingham and Kings Lynn, hardly close to the North-East. Neil Herron has failed to answer the question: "Would he stand for election to an assembly?". The logic of the No campaign offers no positive solutions but control from London.

Most businesses want lower costs. A regional assembly would provide precisely that. The administration is already in place but currently it is run by Whitehall. There will be approximately 400 fewer councillors due to new unitary local authorities in Durham and Northumberland and there is absolutely no indication (just like Scotland) that an assembly will raise local taxes.

It is much more likely that an assembly would want to demonstrate its effectiveness and in time go back to Whitehall and ask for more devolved powers.

The people of the North-East should elect a whole new group of community leaders to run the assembly, who can contribute their skills and expertise in working for North-East people, elected by North-East people, in a North-East regional government. - C Jukes, Chester-le-Street.

I WAS appalled to read Brendan Foster and John Hall's full page assembly advert (Echo, Oct 8).

Not only is the waste of taxpayers' money a disgrace, the amount of false assumptions and misleading statements in it are as big a betrayal of the North-East electorate as that by the region's MPs who take their vote for granted. We elect MPs who, if they represented the region properly, would avert the need for an elected assembly.

As an example of the deceit, an assembly will have direct control of £350m - a fraction of the region's total budget. Extra funds in the first year will be raised through 5p-a-week increase in council tax. Thereafter it is anybody's guess. - J Heslop, Gainford.