THE cost of asking North-East people if they want a regional assembly was revealed yesterday as £3m.

Up to £2m will be spent on a referendum, with another £1m going on a review of local authority boundaries, which will decide whether or not Durham County Council or the district councils are scrapped.

North-East Conservative MEP Martin Callanan said: ''I am astonished that at a time when our public services are crying out for investment and modernisation, the Government is contemplating spending more than £3m to ask people in the North-East about an assembly they are not interested in."

An opinion poll published in The Northern Echo yesterday showed that 32 per cent of people were in favour of the assembly and 25 per cent against.

It showed 32.5 per cent did not know, and 10.5 per cent did not care.

The cost of the referendum was revealed in the Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill published yesterday.

A separate Bill will be required to set up the assemblies, but it will not be introduced until after a successful referendum.

This means that although a referendum could be held as early as May 2004, a North-East assembly is unlikely to be up and running before the next General Election, which is due before 2006.

Campaigners for devolution are privately dismayed at the timescale, although they welcomed the speed with which the Government has introduced the Preparations Bill, just a day after the Queen's Speech.

The Bill says that the question on the referendum ballot paper will be preceded by a statement pointing out that the new assembly would be responsible for a wide range of activities carried out at present by central government, including economic regeneration.

It would also point out that local government would be reorganised into single-tier, unitary authorities.

A boundary committee will decide the future of local government in the region before the referendum is held.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, a supporter of regional devolution, was prevented from formally launching yesterday's Bill by his involvement in the fire strike.

But Middlesbrough Labour MP Stuart Bell said: ''The people of Tees Valley will have to be convinced of the need for a regional assembly and they will have to accept the demise of Durham County Council.

''Newcastle is a city, Durham is a city, and Sunderland is a city. We have no city in the Tees Valley. Will this mean that we are fourth priority? There are many questions to be answered.''