THE North-East Assembly - the body which might be considered the embyonic regional parliament - launched its first annual review this week.

A glossy document full of nice pictures of the North-East and vogue-ish statements about "vision", "regional strategies" and "partnership working", it also contains some hard facts about what this rather shadowy body has been doing.

Did you know, for instance, that in April last year the assembly became the regional planning body for the North-East? It is now working on something it calls the regional spatial strategy - an "overarching framework for growth in the North-East over the next 15-20 years".

The assembly's review document goes on to say this RSS will become a statutory document and that this "will help to ensure that other regional and local plans, strategies and programmes are prepared in conformity with the RSS".

This sounds to Spectator like central planning on a vast and dictatorial scale by a body which at present has at best a weak democratic mandate. A taste of things to come perhaps under a regional parliament?

Fresh insight?

At the launch of Yorkshire Forward's Renaissance Market Towns programme this week, one of the main consultants engaged to oversee the project for Bedale and Northallerton admitted to the gathering during his presentation of what was planned, that he lived in London and had only just driven through Northallerton for the first time for 20 minutes earlier in the day!

It's nice to know that the market town's future is in the hands of someone living hundreds of miles away in London.

He did qualify his remark by saying that it was advantageous for someone completely independent to take a fresh look at the town.

But Spectator's not sure he convinced many Northallerton councillors at the launch.