BURY MP David Chaytor ran into a war of words with his Rossendale counterpart over a possible merger of the two boroughs.

He made a strong plea in Parliament this week to allow Rossendale people the option of joining Bury in the upcoming referendum for a regional assembly.

But his Labour colleague Janet Anderson said the idea was a "madcap fantasy" which should be "consigned to the dustbin where it belongs".

An assembly "yes" vote would break up existing boundaries and lead to Rossendale forming a new council with one of its neighbours. Residents will vote on which option they prefer, but the Boundary Committee has rejected giving them a Bury/Rossendale option, mainly on the grounds that Bury was not good enough.

Mr Chaytor told the Commons that Bury and Rossendale had many close links, including transport and shopping. He also pointed out that Bury Council's performance was much better than when the committee had drawn up its proposals: it was now the most improved in the country, and had the fourth best education service.

However, Ms Anderson said that "rural Rossendale and urban Bury" had very little in common, and the option "exists only in the fertile imagination of my honourable friend".

She accepted that Bury had moved up from "weak" to "fair", but said that both Pendle and Burnley (with whom Rossendale council wants a merger) are already rated as good. This merger is the committee's main option: the other one, which would create a huge council including Blackburn, is widely seen as unworkable.

She was backed by Greg Pope, MP for Hyndburn, who said: "The people of Haslingden do not want to be run from Bury."

Undeterred, Mr Chaytor told the Bury Times: "Whatever Rossendale council and the MPs think, it's only fair that the people of Rossendale should have a proper choice. There's no point in having the vote if there's only one realistic option on the table: that makes a mockery of democracy. The evidence is that the people of Rossendale are increasingly interested in the Bury option and they should have the chance to vote on that when the time comes."