was focused principally on the post of Mayor of London. Assembly proposals Voters were asked whether they wanted an elected regional assembly to be created for their region. The structure and powers of elected regional assemblies was outlined in a Draft Regional Assemblies Bill presented to Parliament by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in July 2004. The draft bill proposed the following structure: The assembly would be a body corporate with a distinct legal identity. Each assembly would be composed of between 25 and 35 assembly members elected by the additional member system. The assembly would select one member as the chairman and another as deputy chairman to preside over its debates. The assembly would have an Executive (cabinet) composed of a Leader and between two and six Executive Members. The draft bill would have given the assemblies the following powers: Promotion of economic development Promotion of social development Promote health, safety and security Reduce health inequalities Enhance individual participation in society Improve the availability of good housing Improve skills and the availability of training Improve the availability of cultural and recreational activities Improvement and protection of the environment Additional functions and duties that the Secretary of State thinks appropriate Local government reorganisation The creation of regional assemblies was to be tied to abolition of the existing two-tier structure for local government in these regions; and its replacement with a uniform system of unitary authorities. In areas that had two-tier government (Cheshire, County Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire, North Yorkshire, Northumberland), voters were to be asked which pattern of unitary government they would like to see. Two options were proposed by the Boundary Committee for each county in the review area – generally consisting of a single unitary authority for the entire county, or a break-up into smaller authorities which are larger than the existing districts. It was recommended that ceremonial counties be left untouched in most cases. This recommendation was broadly (with one minor alteration in West Lancashire) accepted by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Voting was to take place on a per-county council-area basis, except that the Cumbria and Lancashire votes would have been run as one – since it would be impossible to have option 1 in one and option 2 in another. Any changes as a result of the North East referendum would probably have come into effect on 1 April 2006 – to give time