FOR some time I have been puzzling the pros and cons of a regional assembly to replace the county council.

For instance, if highways had been a district or regional responsibility, would the debacles of the Chapel Street cycle lane or the top Market Street traffic lights have been avoided?

It was, therefore, useful last week to have the insight from a professor of politics at a nearby university. Stanley Henig, eight years the leader of the city council, postulates a simple philosophy - namely choose the one that you think is most likely to deliver the Lancaster bypass.

Such a simple approach led me to just one thought. It is not the structure that is important, it is the quality of the senior officers and elected representatives who work at any level which determines the effectiveness.

Thus, if we get a regional assembly, it will simply be former county officers and politicians that end up running it and their power for botch-ups will simply be increased.

Michael Jackson, Peacock Lane, Lancaster.