IT is heart warming that politicians of all parties are now joining the campaign against the proposed North West Regional Assembly.

Chris Newby, a Liberal Democrat councillor on Liverpool City Council, is the latest name to sign up to the all-party "No" campaign. He will join fellow Lib Dem Sir Cyril Smith who is vice chairman of the campaign against a North West Regional Assembly.

Cllr Newby says he believes plans for an elected assembly are "fatally flawed" and would be a "disaster" for the region.

Together with all nine North-west Conservative MPs, there are now six North-west Labour MPs backing the "No" campaign including Lindsay Hoyle, MP for Chorley. It will be interesting to see which campaign our own Bolton MPs support. Everyone, whichever campaign they support, should start to lobby our MPs. What is needed is a real and meaningful debate before we are asked to vote on what will be proposals to fundamentally change how local government is run.

Andy Morgan

(Councillor Hulton Ward)