COUNCIL officials are urging residents to support a scheme that will see their district authority cease to exist.

The Government is proposing to set up a regional assembly in the North-East. If this is approved, there will be a huge shake-up in local government.

The two-tier system, where Durham County Council provides some services and the district councils provide others, would be abolished and replaced with a single council.

But County Hall and the district councils cannot agree on what shape the new, unitary authorities should take.

The county council has already put its case for a single, county-wide body. But most of the district councils believe that trying to manage 500,000 residents would be too big a job.

They want to split the county into three unitary authorities, made up of mergers between Derwentside and Chester-le-Street district councils, Easington district and Durham City council, and Wear Valley, Teesdale district and Sedgefield borough councils.

This week, Derwentside District Council is sending a letter to 36,000 homes in the district, urging residents to back its scheme.

Mike Clark, chief executive at Derwentside, said: "The feeling of all of the district councils in Durham is that a unitary county council would be too remote and too large.

"We believe a council serving a population of around 150,000 to 200,000 would be a better sized unit of local government.

"This would be big enough to be strategic and deliver services, but small enough to be local in the sense that there is still a connection between the people and the decision making process."

The changes would mean upheaval for council workers and politicians, but Mr Clark said: "We have to take advantage of the opportunity the Government has given us, to make a change for the better. If that has a personal impact on us, then so be it."

The Boundary Committee for England has begun its review and is expected to make draft recommendations for consultation in December.

Its final recommendations are expected next May.