QUALITY of service is the issue that matters most to people living in council areas facing a potential shake-up.

A poll by market researchers Mori ahead of possible boundary changes in the North-East and North Yorkshire showed this was the single most important subject that those questioned felt to be at stake.

Value for money and the actual size of any new local authority also mattered.

On May 25, the Boundary Committee for England will publish its final recommendations for a single tier of local Government in areas where they are both districts and a county council, which include North Yorkshire, County Durham and Northumbria.

The review is taking place to tie in with referendums in the autumn on elected regional assemblies

In the event of a no vote in a referendum, the Government has said there will be no restructuring and the local authority set-up will remain the same.

The Mori research, being taken into account by the Boundary Committee before it makes its final recommendations to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, sampled thousands of residents living across the North-East and North Yorkshire.

It found that more than three quarters of people felt a strong sense of belonging to their actual county - rather than to their administrative district or county council area.

Pamela Gordon, chairwoman of the Boundary Committee said: "Full and thorough consideration has been given to the thousands of submissions we have received since the start of the review."