A POLICE authority chief last night admitted his force had no "Plan B" if it was excluded from a merger of two rival North-East forces.

Councillor Dave McLuckie, chairman of Cleveland Police Authority, said the Cleveland force would be happy to stand alone, but conceded that it may have to combine with Durham and Northumbria.

Both Durham and Northumbria have said that, because of Cleveland's opposition to a single North-East force, they may merge, leaving Cleveland out in the cold.

Coun McLuckie, who wants a Tees Valley force combining Cleveland with South Durham, said: "We have no Plan B, on the basis that we will achieve our actual aim - or we will be forced to do something we don't want to."

He added: "Everything is up for grabs at the moment. Only a handful of people - the chief constables of Durham and Northumbria and one or two others - actually believe a North-East force is the way ahead.

"If Cleveland had to stand alone at this stage that would not be too bad because we think we are very good at what we do.

"We punch well above our weight - in fact we equal Northumbria's ability to fight serious crime and they are two-and-a-half times our size.

"If the Home Office gave us another 1,000 officers we would be better than them."

Meanwhile, Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate, a former president of the Police Superintendents Association and Home Office advisor, said he believed a single North-East force remained the inevitable outcome.

He said: "I can understand where Cleveland Police are coming from - they want to retain their independence.

"However, Cleveland as a standalone force is just not viable. My instincts tell me that if the forces cannot agree, the Government will impose an amalgamation on them and there will be a single regional force, including Cleveland."

Lord MacKenzie said he agreed that the move towards mergers was happening too fast.

He said: "The police authorities could have been given longer to carry out consultation. The mistake has been rushing things."

The Home Office had given all 43 police authorities in England and Wales a deadline of yesterday to come up with final, detailed plans aimed at creating larger, strategic forces better able to tackle the threat of terrorism, organised crime and drug trafficking.

However the deadline passed with many failing to meet that demand and agree on proposed mergers.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We will look in detail at the submissions we have received, after Christmas.

"We recognise there will be a need for further discussions and we will be working closely with all police forces and authorities in January, including meetings with chief officers and police authority chairs to discuss the outstanding issues."