Regional Government

It is clear that the government is carrying on with its desire for regional government despite the vote against it in the north-east. One result if they are able to continue is the likelihood of unitary authorities. Whilst removing one level of local authority should in theory reduce overall costs. A concern is that larger authorities will be further removed from their population and that having fewer elected representatives will lead to full time paid councillors. I do not see this as a positive development.
In addition, an elected regional assembly will put more of the real power into the region which will inevitably mean that the main areas of population will have the biggest say over the more rural areas.
A key issue is that there is already a high level of regional control through unelected bodies. The choice seems to be between reducing the powers of these or having an elected assembly. For an area such as ours the former seems a far more attractive proposition.