AN UNELECTED regional assembly for the South East should be immediately abolished and its powers returned to Kent councils, according to the Conservative leader of Kent County Council.

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart was responding to the news that voters in the North East had overwhelmingly rejected plans for an elected assembly there.

He said the misgivings shown by voters in the North East towards regional government were echoed in Kent and that the existing uunelected South East regional assembly – SEERA - should now be scrapped.

Sir Sandy said: “The region’s powers and responsibilities should be returned to local councils and local people. The South East region as set out by the Government, stretches from Margate to Oxford, has no sense of identity, is remote, highly bureaucratic, wastes public money and fulfils no useful purpose.

“Local councils always will work together on issues like the Thames Gateway, that are totally relevant and highly important to local communities. On Thames Gateway, Kent is already working closely with Essex and London, yet neither of those two areas are in the Government’s designated South East region.”

SEERA is in the news after planners published controversial proposals that could see even more houses built in Kent than envisaged by the Government.

The Conservative chairman of SEERA, the leader of Surrey County Council Cllr Nick Skellet, echoed Sir Sandy’s call.

He said: “The Conservative party policy is not to have regional assemblies and I agree with Sir Sandy. We are taking part and are active in the assembly because the Government has given it a role and while it exists, we will make it work as best we can.”

But KCC opposition Labour group leader Cllr Mike Eddy said the assembly was doing a good job.

He said: “I am somewhat surprised by Sir Sandy as the non-elected regional quangos were a product of John Major’s government. The powers they have are devolved to the region from central government.

“There are a whole series of things the assembly does, such as transport planning, which make sense to be done on a regional level.”

The assembly consists of 111 un-elected members, drawn principally from local authorities in the region, but also representatives of business, environmental and church groups.

It has limited powers but among the most important it now has is to draw up a regional planning strategy, setting out how many houses it wants to see built in the region.