The mayor of Middlesbrough Ray Mallon today calls for a legal challenge to be launched to halt the creation of a single North-East police force.

The Northern Echo understands that police authority officials on Teesside could seek a judicial review of Home Secretary Charles Clarke's controversial proposal to merge Cleveland with Northumbria and Durham.

Members of Cleveland Police Authority are meeting this afternoon to discuss the shake-up and to vote on whether they should voluntarily accept the plan.

If they refuse to go along with the merger, Mr Clarke is expected to announce next Wednesday that he will attempt to force through the changes. But a judicial review would cause delays by triggering a four-month consultation period.

Former police chief Mr Mallon has now entered the row for the first time, and called for his ex-employers to take legal action.

"If the Home Secretary insists on the regionalisation of the police forces in the North-East, then it is in the interests of the public for Cleveland Police Authority to seek judicial review," he said.

"I am not convinced that a regional police force is in the best interests of the public, and I believe the process is severely flawed."

Three weeks ago, Mr Clarke published a fresh study that concluded the amalgamation of the three forces was the "only acceptable option".

Mr Clarke urged chief constables and authority leaders to accept the shake-up and gave them a deadline of today to confirm they were willing to merge voluntarily.

Cleveland said then that its fight to stop the "superforce" was not over and threatened a legal challenge to halt a move it branded as "expensive, unpopular and irrelevant to fighting crime".

The Durham and Northumbria forces support Mr Clarke's plans and say a single strategic force has always been the only option that makes sense to tackle terrorism and serious crime.

Police authorities in those two areas are also meeting today to vote on the shake-up.

Officials on Teesside have backed an option that would see the North-East split into two "city regions" - one combining Cleveland with the southern part of County Durham.

Mr Clarke is to meet the North Yorkshire chief constable and police authority chairman ahead of a decision there.

Two options are on the table - a single Yorkshire and Humberside force, or a merger of North Yorkshire with West Yorkshire.