Assembly change as leadership of group goes south

Councillor Bob Gibson, leader of Stockton Borough Council, became the assembly's chairman when Councillor Tony Flynn, leader of Newcastle City Council, stood down at the annual meeting.

Each council appoints one representative to the North-East Assembly, which scrutinises the performance of development agency One NorthEast.

However, under plans announced last week by the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, people in the North-East will take part in a referendum in autumn next year to see if they want to directly elect an assembly.

One of the criticisms of plans for the assembly is that it could be dominated by Newcastle at the expense of the Tees Valley and other areas.

Therefore, the replacement of a Newcastle representative by a Teesside one to lead the existing assembly could be seen as a way of underlining the assembly's commitment to the whole region.

Coun Gibson said the chairmanship was taken on a rotation basis and the fact that the new chairman was the Tees Valley representative was coincidental.

He said: "It is simply the Tees Valley's turn.

"I think people will be happy to see that there is going to be a referendum, because then it allows a 'no' campaign and a 'yes' campaign to go out and sell their goods."

Yesterday's meeting was addressed by Sunderland-born Janet Ryder, Plaid Cymru's spokesman on local government in the Welsh Assembly.

Mrs Ryder said: "I think the benefits of an assembly are the ability to set policies that suit your region.

"Listen to what businesses and young people are saying and feed those issues in to shape the policies that are right for your region.

"If you can achieve that, than the advantages are immense. It really is crucial that these decisions that affect everybody are taken at the level of those they affect."

Earlier this week, Coun Gibson replaced Coun Flynn as chairman of the Association of North-East Councils, an organisation which acts as a trade union for North-East councils.