TOP brass at Durham Constabulary have been told to go back to the drawing board with controversial plans to shake up policing boundaries.

Senior officers clashed with council chiefs in Darlington over proposals which would lead to a north-south divide in County Durham.

A consultation document is proposing two divisions - instead of the existing six - in a move the force insists will make big financial savings, which would be re-invested on the front line.

The two divisional headquarters would be in Chester-le-Street and Darlington, but local authority leaders in the latter town are furious at the plans.

Borough council leader John Williams told Assistant Chief Constable Ron Hogg that the proposals could damage existing good relations between the two organisations.

"You haven't paid enough attention to the fact that Darlington is completely different to the rest of County Durham," he said.

He argued that, since Darlington won its unitary status in the mid-1990s, many successful partnerships had been forged. They could be threatened, he feared.

The council believes the police review is flawed and fears that, with one large division covering Darlington and other districts, there will be a great deal of suspicion about use of resources.

With 40 per cent of the force area's heroin addicts and a third of its young offenders, officials are worried about a potential decrease in crime-fighting ability.

But Mr Hogg insisted that beat officers and sergeants, accessibility of police stations and partnership arrangements would remain unchanged, and later improved upon.

He said: "Darlington has the highest rate of crime per head of the population in the force area. To reduce resources would constitute policing madness and that is something I am not prone to."

A fall-back option offers a three-way split with headquarters at Peterlee, taking in Newton Aycliffe and Seaham.

The final decision rests with the Chief Constable, but the borough council is urging him not to press ahead with the current preferred option.