SO the 'yes' campaigners for a Yorkshire Regional Assembly have started their "nine month countdown" leading up to the planned referendum (February 3). The very fact that they need nine months says it all to me.

Just another electioneering pack of lies designed to mislead people into enabling yet a further layer of politicians to line their pockets at our expense.

If the 'yes' campaigners want to convince me to even bother turning out to vote they only need a few minutes - not nine months. Meanwhile, straightforward answers to the following questions would be good starting point:

What powers will be transferred from Westminster to Yorkshire?

How will a regional assembly redistribute wealth from the South to the North?

How will it encourage democratic participation and reduce Government red tape?

Will existing levels of local government be removed, or will the assembly simply be an additional layer?

Who will pay for the regional assembly - both initial costs to set up the base and ongoing expenditure? Can the 'yes' campaigners guarantee local people will not have to pay additional tax?

If the 'yes' campaigners can give unambiguous answers to these questions, and more, then maybe we have a platform for debate. If not we may as well stay with the devil we know.

Tony Taylor,

Grassholme,

Woodthorpe,

York.

...CAN anyone explain to me and many pensioners like me what benefits we would receive by having a Yorkshire Assembly?

What would be the cost? No doubt this would be another excuse for a hike in council tax and "jobs for the boys".

What difference would it make having decisions made in Yorkshire instead of London? It would still be out-of-touch politicians making them.

Politics should be taken out of local government and be run by people with a business brain instead of spend, spend councillors who seem to have no idea of how to use public money responsibly.

WT Smith,

Gorse Hill,

Dunnington, York.

Updated: 11:38 Friday, February 06, 2004