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The
Government announced earlier this summer that three Regions (the
North East, the North West and Yorkshire & Humber) would be
holding referendums in the Autumn of 2004 asking the question "Are
you in favour of an elected Regional Assembly for this Region".
A new
organisation to be called "Yorkshire Says No" believes
that these new Assemblies would be expensive to run, would have
very little executive power and would slow down existing decision-making
processes.
The
Chairman of Yorkshire Says No is John Watson and he is now in the
process of putting together a team of activists which will form
the core of the campaign.
In
due course Yorkshire Says No intends to apply for funding available
through the Electoral Commission which will be available for the
last few weeks before the referendum date.
According
to Yorkshire Says No, the new Assembly would have around 30 elected
members, called MYAs, and would cost around £25 million per
year in administration.
It
would be able to place a precept on Council Tax and these could
be expected to rise by at least £25 per year.
The
powers of the new body, however, would be very limited and it would
account for less than 2% of public expenditure in the Region.
As
proposed the Assembly would have responsibility for economic development,
regional planning, skills and some housing finance.
Even
in these areas of responsibility, however, it would not do the job
itself but would use existing agencies, such as Yorkshire Forward,
for the purpose.
Over
other fields the Assembly would have no actual power at all but
would be expected to "co-ordinate" the activities of the
existing bodies and Local Authorities.
According
to John Watson this is not the way to go about things.
"What
people want is more teachers, more policemen and more nurses. This
Assembly will provide not one extra teacher, policeman or nurse
- but it will provide 30 extra politicians."
If
you disagree with John's position why not have your say, fill in
the form below.
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Steve Johnson
yorkshire is a region of the UK just like scotland so it should a devolved parliament like scotland i'm not english i'm british and from the yorkshire region of the UK.
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