I WELCOME the announcement that the government is proposing to hold a referendum in autumn 2004 on having an elected regional assembly for the North West.
Your report (LET, June 17) implied that this was a vote on whether to have regional government in the North West. This is not the case because we already have regional government in the North West and have had since it was introduced by the Conservative government in the early 1990s. We are not talking about creating a new regional bureaucracy because the bureaucracy is already there.
The problem is that regional government in the North West is made up of people appointed from London and answerable to them, not answerable to the people of the North West. This regional government takes decisions on health, housing, transport and economic development, spending billions of pounds of public money.
I would invite readers to name their representatives on the existing regional government. They won't be able to -- because they don't have any. I think this ought to change, which is why I support an elected regional assembly.
Councillor DAVE HOLLINGS (Sunnyhurst Ward), Sudell Road, Darwen.
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