On successive days last week, items on this page highlighted the ever more dominant role of regionalism in the affairs of the North-East - despite last year's massive vote against an elected regional assembly.

First, deputy editor Chris Lloyd very usefully outlined the obviously deliberate yet unstated moves towards bringing public services in line with regional boundaries. In addition to those he dealt with - police, health, fire and ambulance, and learning and skills - education could probably be added to the list.

For, if regional government is to be established, it will first be necessary to eliminate one of the existing two tiers of local government. The current plan to remove education from local authority control could be a ploy to get rid of county councils, for which education is one of the main responsibilities. Such deviousness is hardly unknown.

A day later, John Shuttleworth, a Durham county councillor, expressed in Hear All Sides his amazement, no doubt shared by many, that not only is an unelected North East Assembly active a year after the elected assembly was roundly booted into touch, but that it is "allowed to dictate what growth of housing can take place in the region''.

And, for the record, where industry can go as well. For the North East Assembly is responsible for producing a so-called "regional spatial strategy'' - a title that creates no expectation of sensitivity or finesse - to which local councils are expected to conform.

In an important recent speech Sir Max Hastings, the distinguished former editor of The Daily Telegraph, who is president of the Council to Protect Rural England, spoke cogently on this issue.

"Today,'' he said, "those questioning or contesting planning proposals find themselves obliged, willy-nilly, to go to a regional assembly's planning department... because that is where the Government has vested power... No-one should doubt that local democracy is set at nought by the current distribution of planning powers.''

Sir Max added: "It would be nave to suggest that the misbegotten policy can be readily undone, but this should be our objective.''

Where better to start than in the North-East, which can claim the authority of its 78 per cent 'No' vote to the elected assembly? Perhaps Coun Shuttleworth will lead the troops?

The battle plan is simple. Refuse to co-operate with the unelected regional assembly. Ask it to justify its powers. And when it points to the Government, demand to know by what law, outside a state of emergency, the Government can override local democracy by transferring sweeping powers to a non-elected body. Could it give me the power to produce a spatial strategyfor my village?

Claiming that the public's "only means of thwarting Government development plans'' now lies in the "so-called consultative process'', Sir Max said: "We need to persuade more people to write letters, turn out for meetings, show politicians in the clearest terms what is and is not acceptable to communities.''

Before that, the first priority is to demonstrate that we are prepared to accept decisions, including any that might ultimately go against us, only from the people we elect to take them. The time has come to call the Government's, and the regional assemblies', bluff. Our elected councils should ignore the assemblies, leaving them, and their probably hideous "regional spatial strategies'', high and dry.