Anthony Butcher

Press Release

North East No Campaign

10 am 24th September...2004

IMMEDIATE

High Court Writ to be Served on Deputy Prime Minister by No Campaign

Following the notice served on the Rt. Hon Nick Raynsford yesterday and
the failure of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to take any
positive action to correct the factually incorrect leaflet 'Have Your
Say' for all 1,900,000 voters in the North East Referendum, the North
East No Campaign has been left with no choice but to launch an action in
the High Court today.

Lawyers have prepared an application in the public interest for an
emergency Injunction with papers to be lodged today at the Royal Courts
of Justice. A writ will be served on John Prescott's Office of the
Deputy Prime Minister.

Letters of objection requesting a full correction of the leaflet have
been ignored by the ODPM, the Audit Commission and the Electoral
Commission, leaving the No Campaign with no choice but to take this
drastic and high profile step. The urgency is due to the fact that a
partial correction is due to go out to only 220,000 households in the
North East on Monday 27th September, yet the errors affect all 1,900,000
voters.

Lawyers at Cherie Blair's former chambers, 4-5 Grays Inn Square, Grays
Inn, yesterday put Rt Hon Nick Raynsford on notice that the No Campaign
would be taking this action. To see the copy of the notice click here
<http://neilherron.blogspot.com/2004/09/high-noon-for-raynsford.html>.

The No Campaign's lawyers received a fax last night at 5.15pm from the
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister requesting more time, and they have
lawyers working on a response.

The papers will be lodged by Neil Herron and Colin Moran of the North
East No Campaign along with their legal representatives at 2pm today at
the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, London (bringing back
memories of the Metric Martyrs Case and ironically this time the people
putting the Government before the courts rather than vice versa).

Neil Herron states, "We have given the Deputy Prime Minister repeated
opportunities to address the factually incorrect statement which gives
the impression that people will be elected under proportional
representation. Also, the partial correction addressing the incorrect
cost figure for local government reorganisation has been admitted BUT
there needs to be a correction for everyone who received the leaflet,
not just County Durham. The people across the whole of the North
East cannot be expected to vote on the North East's future based on a
misleading document. We do not wish to jeopardise the referendum, but a
decision affecting ours and our children's future cannot be made without
everyone having the correct information."

Colin Moran states, " The clock is ticking and we are aware that their
lawyers are urgently working on a response to attempt to avoid court
action. We hope that respect for the North East public's right to be
informed and that a common sense solution would be in the best interests
of everyone."

ENDS

Neil Herron
Campaign Director
North East No Campaign
48 Frederick Street
Sunderland
SR1 1NF
Tel. 0191 565 7143
www.northeastnocampaign.co.uk

*Contacts*
*Neil Herron*
*Mob. 07776 202045*
**
*Colin Moran*
*Mob. 07802 448 635*

Legal Representatives:
Tilbrook's, Quires Green, Willingale, Ongar, Essex CM5 0QP
Tel: 01277 896000 Fax: 01277 896050

Counsel:
Philip Coppel
4-5 Gray's Inn Square, Gray's Inn, London WC1R 5AH
Tel: 020 - 7670 1530 (direct)

Anthony Butcher

And the accompanying letter
--------------------------------------------------------

The Rt Hon. Nick Raynsford
Minister for Local and Regional Government
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
26 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2WH
Thursday, 23 September 2004
BY FAX: 020 - 7944 4539
Also by e-mail to: nick.raynsford@odpm.gsi.gov.uk

***EXTREMELY URGENT***

Dear Mr Raynsford

Referendum 4 November 2004

This is an important letter.

We act for the North-East No Campaign Limited. We have been instructed
on their behalf to write this letter.

We write in relation to the referendum that is being carried out
pursuant to section 1 of the Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Act 2003.

We refer to the document published by the Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister entitled An Elected Assembly for the North East. Have Your Say,
(Product Code 04RDG02287 NE), published August 2004 (A the Document@ ).

As you are aware, 1.2 million copies (approximately) of the Document
were distributed to each address in the North-East Region in late August
2004. The Document is directly and exclusively related to the
forthcoming referendum that is to be held by closing date of 4 November
2004. The fact that the Document is published by the Office of the
Deputy Prime Minister plainly gives it the appearance of
authoritativeness and means that it must be correct in every detail and
in no way misleading. This is underscored by Guidance from the Cabinet
Office in relation to Government Publicity and Advertising.

On the fifth page of the Document, in the page headed "County Durham" ,
it states:

"The Government will pay the upfront costs needed to realise these
savings. These costs should be less than , 37 million for option A and ,
38 million for option B."

As you have already publicly admitted, this statement is erroneous and
should read:

"The Government will pay the upfront costs needed to realise these
savings. These costs should be less than , 37 million for option A and ,
49 million for option B."

In other words, you admit an error of , 11 million pounds.

Your admission has been widely reported, including in the 17 September
2004 issue of The Journal.

You have also publicly stated, and this too has been widely reported,
that you will be shortly writing to all households in County Durham
correcting this error.

All households in County Durham@ constitutes approximately 220,000
households of the 1.2 million households to which the Document has been
sent.

We would ask that you confirm, as a matter of urgency, that the
corrected version will be sent to all 1.2 million households to which
the Document has been sent.

Next, there is a further material error in the Document which we would
ask to be corrected at the same time and sent to all 1.2 million
households to which the Document has been sent.

On the second page of the Document it is stated:

"The Government intends that a North East assembly would consist of
around 25 elected members to represent different views and parts of the
region. They would be elected - as in Scotland, Wales and London - by a
system of proportional representation to help prevent domination by a
single party and to help ensure a balance of opinion. Elections would be
held every four years."

This is incorrect. In the Draft Regional Assemblies Bill (presented to
Parliament by the Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State,
July 2004, Cm 6285) (" the Bill" ) clause 3 provides that an assembly is
to consist of: (a) constituency members; and (b) regional members. The
former are members for electoral regions, called "constituencies" ,
within the assembly= s region (cl. 3(2)). The latter are members for the
whole of the assembly= s region (cl. 3(3)). There is to be one
constituency member for each constituency and, accordingly, the region
of an assembly is divided INTO phpbb_as many constituencies as there are
constituency members (cl. 4(1)-(2)). The number of constituency members
and the number of regional members for the assembly is to be such as the
Secretary of State may prescribe (cl. 3(4)). The total number of members
for the assembly is to be between 25 and 35 (cl. 3(5)).

In the Explanatory Notes to the Bill, paragraph 15 states:


15. Assembly members would be elected under what is called the
Additional Member System (also used for the election of members to the
Greater London Authority). This means that a number of members
(constituency members) would be elected for constituencies on the
traditional first-past-the-post method. The rest (regional members )
would be elected on a region-wide basis, as top-up members. The precise
division between the number of each type of elected member would be
decided by an order of the Secretary of State but it is expected that
the constituency members would make up the majority.

Similarly, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister document entitled
Proposed Statutory Guidance to the Electoral Commission on drawing-up
the Constituencies for a North East Regional Assembly. Consultation
Paper it is stated:

1. Members of a North East regional assembly will be elected using
a form of proportional representation known as the Additional Member
System. This will mean that a North East assembly will have a majority
of members representing individual constituencies elected by the
first-past-the-post system, with a minority being elected from regional
lists to ensure that the
overall representation in an assembly is broadly representative of
the votes cast.


The White Paper stated that the Government would expect that around 33
to 35 per cent of its members would be regional top-up members meaning
that around 65-67 per cent of members would be constituency members for
specific electoral areas. The Government feels that such a breakdown
(which mirrors that for the National Assembly for Wales) would both
ensure that all voters have an identifiable constituency representative
whilst encouraging an assembly to take a region-wide approach. With this
in mind the Government feels that the most appropriate number of
constituency members (and of electoral areas) would be between 15 and 17
(as this would provide that proportionality) and would welcome the
Commission's advice on the exact allocation of members within this range.

It is, accordingly, incorrect (or, at very best, substantially
misleading) to describe the voting to be "by a system of proportional
representation." We would therefore ask that you correct the Document so
that it reads:

The Government intends that a North East assembly would consist of
around 25 elected members to represent different views and parts of the
region. The majority of members representing individual constituencies
will be elected by the first-past-the-post system, with a minority being
elected from regional lists to ensure that the overall representation in
an assembly is broadly representative of the votes cast. Elections would
be held every four years.

Again, please advise by return fax that you will be ensuring that this
correction is included in the corrected version to be sent, and that it
will be sent to all 1.2 million households to which the Document has
been sent.

We understand that your proposed corrected version of the Document is to
be sent to the 220,000 households on Monday, 27 September 2004. In the
circumstances, we would ask for your written confirmation of both
matters (i.e. that it will be sent to all 1.2 million households and
that the other correction will also be made) by 5:00pm today (i.e. 23
September 2004).

If you advise in writing by 5:00pm today that you will defer sending the
currently-intended corrected version, we are prepared to allow you
greater time within which to consider your response to this request. In
this latter case please advise by 5:00pm today as to the date by which
you will let us know your response to the corrections and the wider
distribution as well as the revised date on which you propose to send
out the corrected document.

In the event that we do not receive a satisfactory response from you by
5:00pm today, we shall be immediately instituting declaratory
proceedings in the High Court of Justice. To this end, we have already
instructed Counsel.

Yours faithfully