JOHN Elliott is going to live to be 100.

Now 60, he will spend half of his remaining 40 years working and the rest in retirement.

The working bit could be interesting.

For this bluff businessman has just taken on the role of spearheading the North-East's campaign to resist a regional assembly.

And he is the first to admit he is a most unlikely champion for the cause.

He doesn't even like politicians. At least not at national level. And if he had his way he would ban party politics from local government.

"I am a passionate North Easterner. A Bishop Auckland man first and foremost," he says. "I believe in local communities helping themselves."

Mr Elliott runs the Ebac water cooling firm in Bishop Auckland, employing 350 people.

"We are an integrated business with subsidiaries all around the world," he says. "That is why we are successful. We are inter-dependent."

He has never been a local councillor. But he knows enough to judge that local government is not right the way it is organised now.

However, that does not mean he supports change on the scale of a regional assembly.

"There is a lot to sort out," says Mr Elliott. "But I believe it should be on a smaller - not bigger - scale."

He was involved in the campaign to keep the £, but this is his first foray into anything else.

"And all at the ripe old age of 60," he says. "But I am sure I will live to be 100 and I'll give 20 years of the remaining 40 to work. The rest will be retirement.

"Back in January I found I just couldn't believe in it all and thought it was worth a shot.

"The Government is saying things which are not true, for example that business wants this shake-up. I do not know any businessman who does."

Coming in cold to front the campaign, he will draw on his experience as a school and college governor and director of Business Link.

Mr Elliott is passionate about family, having three children, three grandchildren and two guinea pigs.

He lives in Bishop Auckland. He was born there but spent his early life in a village near Cockfield.

He thinks the present local government set-up is by no means satisfactory.

"Local government needs to be re-assessed for communities in the twenty-first century, which have changed dramatically," he says.

"So I support some change. But not this. This is just more of the same. It is a gravy train."

He is sure his team can win this campaign.

"It is taking a lot of my time but I have a great team at the firm and I can rely on them," he said. "Some people were in favour of regional assemblies at the start. They bought the dream. But now they are having second thoughts."

He agrees that apathy could prove to be a formidable enemy.

"We have just got to try to persuade people that this is important and that will be hard," said Mr Elliott.

"It is a simple message and we have to be passionate about it; that it is worth taking time to vote for."

Being in this position has come as a huge surprise. "I suppose I am an unlikely champion for the cause," he says