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		MEPs call for Assembly abolition Friday 28th January 2005 The East Midlands Regional Assembly meeting will today (January 28th) hear a call for its own dissolution. The motion, proposed by Conservative MEP Roger Helmer and seconded by his colleague Chris Heaton-Harris MEP, drew attention to the overwhelming NO vote of 79% in the recent referendum on regional assemblies in the North East, and argued that a NO vote on this scale represented a rejection not just of an elected assembly, but of the whole of the government's regionalisation project. Accordingly the motion calls on the government to work towards the dismantling of the structures of regional government, and the return of powers to genuine local government institutions -- county, district and town councils. This would involve disbanding the Assembly itself, as well as other regional bodies such as the RDA and the Government Office of the East Midlands. Local MEP Roger Helmer said, "It is clear that the public have no appetite for an expensive new layer of government. We have quite enough politicians already. Far from bringing decision-making closer to the people, these regional structures take away control from genuinely local authorities, and give it to remote regional institutions that are more likely to listen to Whitehall than to local people. There is a particular concern about planning, where regional planning authorities are likely to drive through government development projects in the teeth of local opposition." Mr Helmer's colleague in the European Parliament, Chris Heaton-Harris MEP, added: "The people have spoken in the North East referendum. It is time to start listening to their views, and to sweep away Prescott's regionalisation plans."