Last week, Burley-in-Wharfedale Labour MP and Local Government Minister Chris Leslie told MPs that the new Local Government Bill on its way through Parliament allowed extra cash to be levied on Council Tax payers.

This would be used to fund the administration costs of new regional assemblies.

Mr Leslie said that such charges would be no more than five pence a week per household. At about £2.50-a-year, the precept would hardly be 'onerous' he stated.

Tories in Parliament were not happy about the idea at all especially when Mr Leslie failed to rule out increases in the precept in future years.

In the perfect regional assembly world, there would be an increase in local democracy and any increase in local taxation - i.e. Council Tax precept - would be matched by a decrease in central taxation.

But as we are well aware, anyone seriously convinced that central Government taxes will ever realistically decrease is either a politician in search of votes or a congenital imbecile.

Regional assemblies in both Wales and Scotland have been remarkable, not for the sweeping benefits they have provided for the populations of those countries, but for the enthusiasm of representatives to vote themselves massive pay rises and increasingly long holidays.

The new regional assembly buildings rival the imaginary palaces of the fabled kings of Eldorado and the lost city of Atlantis, making the opulence of Nebuchadnezzar seem modest by comparison.

Support for or opposition to regional assemblies often breaks down along party lines with the Labour Party's enthusiasm usually countered by the Tories' distaste.

In Wharfedale, Otley Town Council is led by Labour Councillor John Eveleigh who, true to party form, is an enthusiast.

Since 1974, Otley Town Council has levied its own precept on the Council Tax. This coming year, the figure will be a total of £244,000, around 50 pence per week per household.

But Councillor Eveleigh thinks that voters may be prepared to pay a little extra for an assembly of locally elected representatives.

Coun Eveleigh said: I fully support the principle of a Regional Assembly. We certainly want one for Yorkshire and Humberside. The more power we can devolve from Westminster to more local, democratically elected people the better.

"I suspect there would be some resentment about the extra cost, but if regional assemblies are going to run services they have to get a budget from somewhere.

"We would hope it would balance out and Government would pass money down from the centre. When the majority of areas have got them there should be a reduction in overall taxation going to the centre.

"If you want democracy you have to pay. I would prefer locally elected bodies rather than Quangos."

He said he understood that the situation in Ilkley was slightly different because the Parish Council since 1974 had to rely on Bradford Council giving it a grant to carry out its functions instead of raising a precept.

Coun Eveleigh said: "All the parishes and town councils in the Leeds area were given the power to precept. It makes it better for local people - their council is more accountable. At least in Otley if people don't like the precept they can kick us out."

Ilkley Parish Council dipped its toe in the precept water last year for the first time in a move which came under fire from some locals.

It was an attempt to transform the body from what was essentially a lobby group into an effective level of local government with the political and financial clout to achieve results for itself instead of having to rely on its questionable powers of influence at City Hall.

Although the results of precepting for the first time were not immediately obvious on the streets of the town, parish councillors were understandably reluctant to rush out of the Town Hall immediately and spend wads of cash on anything that moved. The changes will come gradually.

But they are acutely aware that there are elements in the town just waiting for an excuse to accuse them of 'double-rating' and wasting Council Tax payers' money.

Already Bradford Council has been quick to use the excuse of the new precept to withdraw its annual administration grant to Ilkley Town Hall. The concept that local power has to be paid for locally is one Whitehall will also be keen to exploit.

And Parish Council leader Michael Gibbons (Conservative) is not convinced that regional assemblies will bring the benefits we crave, especially if they come at a premium rate.

Coun Gibbons said: I would not like to see anything that increases the burden of taxation on people locally.

"The level of taxation at the moment and the increases we are about to see in Council Tax are more than sufficient to pay for the various problems we have had.

"Yet another level of local government and yet another burden is not what we want to see. The system we currently have is sufficient. It just needs to become more efficient.

"I would agree with giving power to local people and that is why I have tried to move the parish council forward. Whether we need yet another assembly with the vast expense that entails I am just not sure."

The idea of a Yorkshire Parliament may be attractive to home rulers whose visceral mistrust of Westminster may have more to do with innate chauvinism than rational political considerations.

It seems a long time ago but the 1972 Local Government Act created the prototype Yorkshire Parliament in the West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council.

But that cumbersome, wasteful and much maligned body was abolished in the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Government. Not many people, apart from bureaucrats and politicians, remember it with affection and we don't seem to miss it nowadays.

Having our own 'Yorkshire' Parliament may seem a great way to turn our noses up at London but you can bet your next litter of whippets, Yorkshire people will have to pay through the nose for it.

Do we really need another layer of pedantic, pen-pushing bureaucrats, and self-serving, smarmy politicians - even if they do have 'God's Own' accents?

Or should we take the advice of the 19th century American philosopher Henry David Thoreau and not trust any form of government in the firm conviction that its increase can only mean an increase of evil in the world?