BY THIS time next year, it is conceivable that the Government in Westminster will be drawing up detailed plans to create democratic, accountable regional government in England for the first time in our history.

I believe that the North-East of England will be the first to seize this historic opportunity and thereby end the decades of playing Cinderella to Westminster and Whitehall.

What makes me so optimistic that the creation of a North East Regional Assembly is at hand?

If the pundits are to be believed, there will be a general election next spring and Labour will win a second term in office. The Labour Party, under fire from many quarters over its neglect of the English regions following the granting of devolution to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London, will have in its manifesto a clear and firm commitment to introduce regional government in England.

At the Labour Party Conference in October, deputy prime minister John Prescott reaffirmed the principle of bringing (democratic) decision-making closer to the people it affects. A report by the party's influential National Policy Forum proposes that existing regional assemblies - non-elected bodies consisting of representatives from local councils, business, trades unions and the voluntary sector - should develop detailed proposals for elected assemblies in their regions, working closely with regional partners such as the North East Constitutional Convention of which I am chairman.

It also proposes that the Government publishes a green or white paper on regional governance. This would, I hope, provide a route-map for the regions towards the creation of directly elected assemblies.

As Bishop of Durham, I am non-partisan as far as party politics is concerned, and I certainly do not intend to endorse any particular party through this article. I am simply stating the consequences for the prospects of directly-elected regional government given a political scenario which many commentators are currently assuming.

The first challenge for the North-East will be to demonstrate that there is popular demand for a directly-elected regional assembly. The North East Constitutional Convention has been building up a community of interest around the idea of regional government which has quickly grasped the possibilities that new forms of governance can offer.

Our emphasis on democracy, accountability, participation, equal opportunities and inclusion has touched a nerve with many groups who feel that the existing structures of government are remote, unaccountable and unrepresentative. People are beginning to wake up to the iniquities of "rule by quango" which delivers a policy created in London and supposed to be as applicable to the South East as it is to the North-East. The Northern Echo has campaigned strongly for the Government to find a way to close the North-South divide. I believe that a regional assembly is the best solution to correcting the inequalities in job, health, education and transport which centralisation continues to fuel.

The North-East Constitutional Convention meets today from 9.15am to 1pm in Gateshead Civic Centre.

With your support, the North-East will be the first region in English history to vote in a referendum in favour of having a greater say in the decisions which affect all our lives. The exciting thing is, we may not have too long to wait.