DOES size really matter? It is a question at the centre of two of the most important areas of Government policy - health and crime.

Should primary care trusts, responsible for delivering local health services, be amalgamated into bigger organisations covering wider geographical areas?

Should police forces be merged into superforces with similar arguments about cost, efficiency and the ability to respond to local needs?

It will also be the question at the heart of a renewed debate about local government reorganisation which we predict will be back on the agenda very soon, a year after the North-East said a defiant "no" to regional government.

Opinions are passionately divided and they came to the fore yesterday with a surprisingly public spat between Durham and Cleveland police forces.

Councillor Dave McLuckie, chair of the Cleveland Police Authority, rebuked Durham Chief Constable, Paul Garvin, for daring to voice his opinion that a combined force would save money which could be reinvested into frontline policing.

Mr Garvin will soon be retiring and Councillor McLuckie suggested he should leave the future of the region's policing to those who will still be involved.

What concerns the people of the North-East is not strategies or structures but whether criminals blighting their local communities are being brought to justice.

We are wholly in favour of bureaucracy being cut so that there are more officers on the streets. But we remain to be convinced by the arguments about how that is best done.

What we have no doubt about is that a well-respected officer with decades of experience has every right to let us know his point of view, irrespective of how long he will remain in service.