LIKE turkeys voting for Christmas, councillors have reluctantly agreed to back a plan which would see the death of the Craven District, consumed as part of a Greater Harrogate.

Angry that it had only been presented with a choice of which method to use to commit suicide, Craven District Council reluctantly agreed to back the plan for a merger with Harrogate when it met last Thursday.

The invective was directed mainly at Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who is spearheading - some might say steamrollering - a policy to introduce a Yorkshire and Humberside regional assembly with as yet undefined powers.

The Government has decreed that if the assembly is approved by a referendum, then one of the current two tiers of district and county councils currently existing in North Yorkshire must be dismantled.

The county council showed unusual speed off the mark to declare that it should survive and run district affairs from its eyrie at Northallerton. The districts are strongly opposed and are putting forward a counter proposal which would see the county council killed off and its powers taken over by enlarged "unitary" district authorities.

Their joint submission, hammered out in meetings between leaders of the council, would see Craven merge with Harrogate and other districts combine to create larger districts able to take on a unitary role.

Craven has backed that united approach by the districts councils - but councillors were indignant at the process.

They were particularly angry at the way the Government had specifically excluded any prospect of areas taken away from Yorkshire in 1974 being returned to Craven.

Several councillors said that the return of towns such as Barnoldswick and Earby and the eastern part of the Ribble Valley would give Craven a critical mass to become a unitary authority in its own right.

"Why can't we have back the bits pinched from us in 1974," said Coun Polly English. "It was alright for them to steal Barnoldswick and Earby and Bowland back then but they won't consider that being reversed. It's time we stood up to them and said this is the best option, it's what the people want and if you politicians don't like it then tough, that's democracy."

Coun David Crawford said the whole process was a fiasco and would cost a huge sum of money which would inevitably have to be met by the council tax payer.

"We do not know what the true cost will be, what the responsibilities and duties of this regional assembly will be and I feel that this will cost the people of Craven very dearly. This is an appalling procedure and totally undemocratic," said Coun Crawford.

Representatives from the northern parts of Craven were particularly unhappy and said they had no link with Harrogate at all. David Ireton, John Sayer and Gerald Hurtley all argued for a link with Richmondshire.

But Carl Lis, who has been conducting the talks with the other districts on Craven's behalf, said there was no reciprocal enthusiasm from Richmondshire, which wanted to merge with Hambleton. He added that a response had to be made to the Boundary Commission by September 8.

Coun Robert Heseltine said the merger with Harrogate might not be as bad as some suggested, saying that many services provided in Craven such as highways, social services and education were remote. By bringing them to Harrogate there might actually be an improvement.

The districts will put their joint submission to the Boundary Commission, which will then go to public consultation in December. A regional assembly, if agreed by referendum, could be in place by early 2006 giving the Craven district as we know it just 30 months to live.