CRAVEN and Pendle are doomed as distinct local authorities if Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's proposals for regional assemblies are agreed in a referendum.

A "yes" vote for an assembly would see the scrapping of the familiar two tier organisation of a Craven district and a North Yorkshire county council (and in West Craven of a Pendle district and Lancashire county).

Their place will be taken by one unitary council and for North Yorkshire four options were unveiled by the Boundary Commission this week.

Option one would see the district councils scrapped and one local authority, North Yorkshire, survive.

The other three options see Craven disappear and merge with Harrogate.

Under option two Craven-Harrogate would be linked, as would Richmondshire and Hambleton and Ryedale and Scarborough to form three authorities.

Option three would see the virtual recreation of the old North Riding (Richmondshire, Hambleton, Ryedale and Scarborough) with Craven-Harrogate as a second authority.

The fourth option would see a Yorkshire Dales authority (Craven, Harrogate and Richmondshire) and a North York Moors authority (Hambleton, Ryedale and Scarborough).

Already the jockeying for survival has begun with both districts and county making their case to be retained.

In Lancashire Pendle Council faces becoming absorbed by Burnley.

The Government has expressly ruled out a cross-region merger - even though there is evidence of strong support for towns such as Barnoldswick and Earby and the eastern parts of the Ribble Valley to return to Craven administration.

Craven District Council has already stated that its preference is to merge with Harrogate and council leader Carl Lis pointed out that the one council based in Northallerton would be remote and, with 550,000 population and covering 3,200 square miles, too big to feel truly "local".

"One authority for North Yorkshire 100 miles wide is not the right local choice," said Coun Lis. "The people of North Yorkshire deserve better than that.

"They need local represent-ation and local services - they want to pay bills, talk to officers and look at plans without travelling a day to do it.

"Imagine an officer based in Northallerton wanting to talk to people in Whitby, Ingleton and Tadcaster - he would need three days out of the office to do it. That represents neither value for money nor does it meet local needs."

Coun Lis said all services, from education to transport and safety to social services, were best delivered at a local level.

However, while small is beautiful for Coun Lis, big is best for John Weighell, leader of North Yorkshire County Council.

"The key to effective and good quality services in rural areas is size. Sparse population adds to cost. To manage these costs requires economies of scale which only local councils can secure," he said.

The plans for a regional assembly have been attacked by Skipton MP David Curry, Conservative Local Government Shadow Minister.

Mr Curry told the Herald that people should not be deluded into a belief that this was "Home Rule for Yorkshire" - although that phrase has been used by BBC Look North.

He said the assemblies would be expensive talking shops. In reality they would control just two per cent of public spending in each area.

Speaking in the House of Commons, he accused the Government of distributing "profoundly misleading" leaflets about the benefits of assemblies.

Mr Prescott defended the decision to publish the exact powers of a regional assembly after a referendum.

"After the referendum there will be a Bill ... spelling out those powers and that is the proper way to do it," he said.

But Mr Curry ridiculed his stance: "You have said that people are going to be invited to vote, and then will be told what they have voted on. It is like going to the polls and not being told which parties are in contention to form a government."

He added: "I have always said that if the regions were offered devolution like Scotland we would be bound to look at that to see whether we could benefit from that.

"But as there isn't a snowball in hell's chance of the Government offering anything like that, the question is purely academic."

There was even the sign of a rare alliance between Mr Curry and his neighbour Gordon Prentice, the Labour MP for Pendle, whose constituents face a shotgun marriage with Burnley.

His call for the costs of a "hugely expensive" reorganisation to be shown on the referendum voting paper was backed by Mr Curry.

If the referendum delivers a no vote on regional assemblies, then all talk of scrapping councils and mergers would be halted.