UNION officials have accused Lancashire County Council bosses of scaremongering over the regional assembly.

The County Council last week confirmed it was opposed to a regional assembly but said if North West voters opted for one during a referendum next autumn, they would want a new Lancashire unitary authority.

A yes vote would signal the scrapping of the current two-tier system of local government.

Dave McCall, from the North West TUC, told a fringe meeting at the TUC Conference in Brighton that public sector workers had been left fearful of the future because of scare stories being put out by the county councils in the North West, which are opposed to regional government.

He said: "Staff need to be reassured that there will not be mass redundancies, as the scare stories from the county council in the North West suggest. Staff are rightly very worried about what will happen in the future and the Government needs to reassure people now. These scare stories are being put out because the councils oppose regional government. The Tories at local councils are doing the same."

John Healey, a Yorkshire MP and economic secretary to the treasury, said: "The scare stories do not surprise me because county councils are opposed to regional government because they fear they may not around in the future.

"Unions need to work for a yes vote, pushing the benefits, and not be caught up in what would be seen by the public to be a stance which seems only to be protecting members."

But the leader of Lancashire County Council Hazel Harding said its opposition to a North West regional government was justified.

She added: "We are speaking from experience. When two councils became unitaries in 1998, around 1,000 people lost their jobs. The current cost of their severance payments, for which the County had to borrow money, is more than £500,000 a year. Those are the facts. There is both a human and financial cost to reorganisation at any level."