Hexham Courant
Published on Friday, July 30th 2004
By TESS PATTERSON
TYNEDALE Council’s leader is sceptical about the Government’s decision to postpone referendums on regional assemblies for the North-West and Yorkshire and the Humber.
The North-East vote will go ahead as planned on November 4, but the other two referendums will be rescheduled due to concerns about postal voting in some areas, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has announced.
But Tynedale Council’s leader John Herron said that there had been complaints about postal voting in the North-East’s European elections.Speaking at Tynedale Council’s corporate policy and management board last Thursday, the day of the announcement, Coun. Herron said: “The Deputy Prime Minister has decided to delay the referendum for the North-West and Yorkshire and the Humber, but has allowed the North-East to go ahead for some mysterious reason.“The reason given is that the Electoral Commission is still looking at the results of the postal voting in the North-West and will not report on that until September 13.“The fact that, at any time they could go back to an ordinary ballot box, seems to have passed them by, so we think there has to be some other reason.“There’s equal grounds for discontent in the North-East as in the North-West and Humberside so, why the North-East has been left behind, I don’t know.”
However, Northumberland County Council’s chairman Coun. Tony Reid, of Prudhoe, has welcomed the fact that the North-East referendum is going ahead.“If there’s going to be a referendum, they might as well get it over and done with,” Coun. Reid said.“I’m supportive of the principle of leaving it down to the electors to make a decision.”Coun. Reid said it was important that the Government kept to its manifesto promise of holding referendums on regional assemblies before an anticipated General Election next year.
Chairman of Yes 4, the North-East campaign, Prof. John Tomaney said he was disappointed that referendums in the North-West and Yorkshire and the Humber had been postponed, but was glad that the North-East was still on track.“We are pleased that it will be up to the people of the North-East rather than Whitehall bureaucrats to decide our future,” he said.“This does mean that the eyes of the country will be on the North-East and that the people of the region will have the opportunity not just to decide our future, but also to set the pattern for the future of regional government across England.”
But the North-East Says No campaign chairman John Elliott said that, by postponing the referendum in other regions, the Government was using the North-East as a guinea pig.“The Government is making a serious mistake if it believes it will be any easier to win a referendum in the North-East than in Yorkshire or the North-West,” he said.
The Government published a draft Bill detailing the proposed responsibilities of a North-East Regional Assembly on the same day as the announcement.The new assembly would have powers over economic development, learning and skills, planning, transport, fire and rescue services, housing, public health, education, culture tourism and sport, the environment, crime reduction and rural issues.Campaigners for an elected North-East assembly welcomed the publication of the draft Bill, but opponents said that the Government would have total control over its financing and the allocation of funds.
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