UNITARY local government for North Yorkshire is inevitable, a council leader has said.

Councillor John Blackie, leader of Richmondshire District Council and a county councillor, said resolve appeared to be weakening among district authorities, which have so far opposed a county-wide single-tier arrangement.

"Local unitary government is inevitable, it is just a matter of time," he told the district council on Tuesday.

In spite of a Government pledge in March that councils in North Yorkshire would not be forced to restructure, there was general acceptance that the days of the two-tier system were numbered.

Councillor Michael Heseltine, also a district and county council member, believed that a unitary authority was the right move for the county.

He said: "Maintaining the status quo is out of the question. Regional government, in which rural areas would be given short shrift, is now on the back burner.

"A unitary authority which is much larger than our district would carry a lot of clout. Size can be strength when resources are spread very thinly."

The present arrangement of county and district councils was confusing for many residents and resulted in some duplication, he said.

"In Richmondshire, a councillor represents about 1,100 people; in other areas one councillor can represent 10,000 or 15,000 people," said Coun Heseltine.

Councillor John Harris agreed clarity was needed but said replacing seven district councils with one authority would move local government further away from the people.

He said: "The chances of the electorate interacting with their councillor is very much reduced."

Coun Blackie said replacing the district councils with a unitary body would save more than £20m, but opponents claim the cost of the restructure would be high.

Richmondshire council joined with the county's other district authorities against the idea of a county-wide council.

If pressure for unitary local government continued, the council opted to join neighbouring Hambleton to create its own unitary body.

North Yorkshire County Council, however, supports the idea of a county-wide single authority, a case which won the backing of the Government's boundary committee in 2004, before a referendum on the controversial issue of regional government for Yorkshire was abandoned.