DURHAM County Council has accused neighbouring district authorities of throwing good money after bad in a "desperate bid for self preservation".

But the accusation has brought a swift response from the districts, which in turn have accused the county council of "misleading the public".

The battle over who should be at the helm of local government in the area intensified this week when the county council's deputy leader, Clive Robson, claimed that after spending £280,000 of taxpayers' money on an unofficial referendum the districts were now paying for a consultant to "rubbish" the financial case for unitary government.

He accused district councils of making repeated claims of carrying out "independent financial analysis" of the county council's estimates of the costs of setting up a new single all-purpose council for the county and the £21m a year savings it would bring.

He said that their figures were based on articles in periodicals dating back to 2002 - five years before the county's financial estimates were prepared.

"We published our financial estimates months ago," he said.

"They have been subject to detailed financial appraisal and have been assessed very highly when compared with all other unitary council submissions, including the one made by the district councils.

"It is clear that, despite their denials, the district councils are fighting for self-preservation and their prime tactic now is to attempt to buy survival no matter what it costs."

But Easington District Council leader Councillor Alan Napier speaking on behalf of the Durham districts said Coun Robson had got his facts wrong

He said the districts had spent just over £200,000 on giving 393,000 residents the opportunity to have a say.

"That equates to just over 50p a resident, and in our view that is a small price to pay for democracy," he said.

He said that more than 40 per cent of the electorate had so far responded in the referendum.

"We are also trying to protect our residents from the impact of the county council's serious underestimation of the costs of their plans to change from the current two tier district and county council arrangements.

"The county is telling residents that the cost of transition will be £12m, yet a couple of years ago its own independent assessment put the costs of transition at nearly £32m.

He said the districts had commissioned an independent assessment of the county's figures, which puts the likely cost to council taxpayers in excess of £30m - nearly three times higher.

"Residents shouldn't be misled by the county's figures into thinking a rush to switching to single unitary governance is a good idea," he said.