IT is significant that a group of non-politicians like the North-East Rail Passengers' Committee has come out in favour of more power being devolved from Westminster to the region.

The committee says that the only way that the North-East will get a transport network tailored to its priorities is if it makes those decisions here in the region.

Until now, it has largely been local politicians arguing that there should be more politicians in the region.

The Government says it is moving towards setting up referenda to see if there is a demand for regional assemblies. Then the public will have the chance to consider whether the benefits of things like a co-ordinated regional transport strategy will outweigh the costs of setting up a regional assembly.

The Rail Passengers' Committee certainly has a point. A government based in London is bound to be more sympathetic towards the snarled-up commuter routes of the South-East than it is to the calls for an up-dated station in Thornaby.

However, devolution is not a panacea. One need only look at London for proof of that. The capital has its own assembly, complete with high-profile mayor who was able to recruit one of the world's leading transport experts to sort out London's problems. Yet the plans of Ken Livingstone and Bob Kiley to reform the London Underground have hit the buffers following the Government's insistence that it has the best solutions no matter what the democratically-elected local representatives think.

If the North-East is offered a referendum on devolution, it will not only have to weigh up the pros and cons but also whether it believes Tony Blair's Government wants the devolution project to work.

IT is sad and selfish that 13 per cent of doctors' appointments are missed by patients. It is inconceivable that patients who no longer need an appointment cannot reach a telephone and let the practice know.

However, even with so many people failing to turn up, the time that a GP keeps their patients waiting for appointments already runs into half-hours, if not hours, at some North-East practices. If 100 per cent of patients turned up, all would wait longer and GPs would become even more over-worked.

The doctors' "Keep It or Cancel It" campaign is obviously a valuable message, but the appointment system will only work if both patients and GPs adhere to the appointed time slots.