A TELEVISED debate tackled the hot potato of regional government last night.

The discussion, broadcast live nationwide on BBC News 24 and on the region's local BBC stations, came on the heels of a poll commissioned by the broadcaster that showed almost three-quarters of people in the North-East were in favour of creating an elected regional assembly.

The survey, albeit representing only a tiny sample from the region, found that 72 per cent of people were either strongly or somewhat in favour of an assembly.

This was nine per cent higher than the average across England and one of the highest in the UK, topped only by the West Midlands, where 73 per cent backed an assembly.

Last night's debate, in Newcastle's Assembly Rooms, included North-East MPs Joyce Quin and Alan Beith as panelists, along with the Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Michael Turnbull, and representatives from the Conservatives, business and unions.

Bishop Turnbull said the aim was for people to have more power closer to themselves. "Let's take charge of ourselves a little more and not be run too much from Westminster," he said.

But Tyneside businessman Ian Dormer, from the Institute of Directors, summed up the opposing view.

He said: "We don't really believe that more government is necessarily better government."

The publication of a White Paper and ensuing consultation process on the issue has been delayed, but Gateshead East MP Mrs Quin said she hoped that firm proposals for a referendum would be contained in the Queen's Speech, in November.

Concern was expressed by some members of the audience - made up of community leaders and opinion-formers - that a regional assembly would be dominated by Tyneside and fail properly to take into account views from the southern part of the North-East.

Others said that an assembly would embrace the entire region, and hopes were growing that any such body might be based in Durham - right at its centre.

In the BBC poll, more than half (54 per cent) thought a regional assembly would result in more bureaucracy and red tape, with 45 per cent saying it would become a talking shop for politicians and a waste of money.

The survey was conducted by Opinion Research Business, earlier this month. They interviewed 2,631 nationally, including 200 in the North-East.