Northern Echo 23rd September... Councils take Legal Advice

Legal action on assembly leaflet starts
by Tony Kearney

Legal action: Neil Herron
CAMPAIGNERS against the proposed elected North-East Assembly will file papers in London's High Court tomorrow calling for a judicial review of a controversial Government information leaflet.

The North-East No campaign, led by former Metric Martyr Neil Herron, is embarking on legal action over the Your Say leaflet, which was issued by the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) to the 1.9 million people in the region eligible to vote in November's referendum.

The Government admitted the controversial leaflet contained a factual error over the relative costs of local government reorganisation in County Durham if the region votes in favour of an assembly.

It agreed to spend more than £100,000 sending clarification notices to all the 220,000 households in the county.

However, the North-East No campaign said the correction should be sent to everyone who received the original leaflet, at a cost expected to be almost £1m.

The release of government information has emerged as an increasingly contentious issue in the referendum campaign over the past few days.

Earlier this week, North East Says No -the official opposition to the referendum -lodged a complaint with the Electoral Commission over the wording of the preamble to appear on the ballot paper, while Durham County Council was recently advised by the ODPM to remove its logo from its advertising.

North East No is seeking clarification of the date for the beginning of purdah -the period leading up to an election in which government groups are prevented from issuing information that could be viewed as supporting one side or another.

The Government's position is that purdah will begin on October 7, four weeks before the vote is declared, but Mr Herron is arguing that the purdah should already be under way because it is less than four weeks until the ballot papers are issued.

The increasingly tense atmosphere in which the referendum campaign is being conducted was highlighted yesterday, when the Association of North-East Councils, the group that represents the region's 25 councils, postponed the release of an anticipated statement on the proposed location of the assembly.

In July, 13 of the association's members called for the assembly to be based in Durham City, and a statement outlining the views of the entire membership was expected to emerge when the group met yesterday in Newcastle Civic Centre.

However, chairman Councillor Bob Gibson, the leader of Stockton Borough Council, said that in light of the complaint being lodged by Mr Herron, the release of the statement was to be postponed until the association could take further legal advice.