JUST as the accident-prone Stephen Byers gets embroiled in another high-profile Parliamentary storm, his White Paper proposing regional government slips out.

Entitled "Your Region, Your Choice...", it proposes elected regional assemblies, followed by a wholesale reorganisation of local government.

These assemblies are to have the right to impose local taxes, although the demand will somewhat stealthily be rolled into our council tax demands.

The choice we will be denied will be on whether our taxes are spent on a layer of regional bureaucracy and salaries in the first place.

Evidence shows the prototype regional assemblies the Government has set up in the Midlands are basically talking shops and I'd much rather my taxes were spent on what local people, not politicians, want.

Regional spin doctors are already hyping "strong demand" when polls actually show that five in six hardly even think about it!

Although majorities feel national and local identity more strongly, we must be pushed towards an artificial regional set up that is EU-inspired - and therefore convenient for "Brussels" work programmes.

Readers should write opposing these plans to DTLR Regional Policy Unit, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DU or email: regions.whitepaper@dtlr.gov.uk.

George West

Morton House

Stamford Drive

Groby

Leics