COUNCILLORS and officials say the dream of one County Durham council is not dead.

Despite people voting last week for one county-wide council instead of three, a shake-up will not happen because it was dependent on a regional assembly Yes vote.

Durham County Council backed the assembly and campaigned for one council, which won by about 2,000 votes.

Chief executive Kingsley Smith said : "The idea of three unitary authorities will never come back on the agenda, it is fair to say.

"They are absolutely dead in the water. The dream of one unitary authority lives on."

The council's Labour leader, Councillor Ken Manton, said local government reform would only be off the agenda for a few years.

He said: "So much money can be saved, so much money can be invested in services by having one unitary authority.

"We will be coming back, we will be arguing -certainly I will be -that we should press for a unitary authority.''

He also said the council was working with parish councils to devolve services to them.

Liberal Democrat leader Nigel Martin said he hoped the unitary issue would return soon and that it would be taken up by the major parties as an issue at the General Election next year.

He said: "There is a genuine issue of service to the local community as well as the financial savings."

Independent leader John Shuttleworth said people voted against the assembly because "too many people had their noses in the trough", but also said there was support for one county authority.

Meanwhile Durham City Council's new Liberal Democrat leader, Councillor Fraser Reynolds, called on the Government to say if the council reform issue could return in the near future.

The city would have merged with Easington to form an East Durham council under the three-council option.

The city council had suggested creating a Greater Durham Council, but it was rejected by the Boundary Commission.

Coun Reynolds said: "I hope the Deputy Prime Minister will make a clear statement in the near future as to whether reorganisation of two-tier local government is still on the agenda as a separate issue and, if so, how this will be conducted and when it can be expected.

"The uncertainties of the last two years should not be repeated."

Opponents of a single authority have said the council would cover too large an area.