THE leader of the city council has warned against the pitfalls of having a unitary authority in Worcestershire.

Coun Simon Geraghty says he can understand where county leader George Lord is coming from in pressing for a single tier council, but is worried what the public might think. As the Worcester News reported exclusively on Friday, conservatives on the county council have voted down a proposal by Coun Lord to scrap the district authorities.

The proposal - which has been raised as a way of saving money - also has the support of Worcester MP Mike Foster.

Coun Geraghty said: "I can understand where George Lord is coming from, in order to look at ways of making savings, but we have to be careful because if we are to submit a bid to the Government there is no time for public consultation.

"The Government wants proposals to merge to come forward by the end of January. The danger is we don't know what the public think, and we haven't drawn up details of the costs and benefits either.

"The public will say hang on, this is all a little rushed'. If we get it wrong, it is local services that will suffer."

The city council is under huge pressure from the Government to make savings either by sharing services or merging with the county council.

Coun Geraghty said the recent example of the merging of the revenue and benefits service is a good example of how difficult it is to make changes. After a bitter public row on the benefits of merging the service, it was narrowly voted through by city councillors.

Originally, six councils were planning to merge these services, resulting in savings of £190,000 per year for every authority taking part.

However, Bromsgrove and Redditch district councils dropped out of the scheme.

The city council joined Wychavon and Malvern Hills in confirming the merger.

"We had some difficulties with the revenue and benefits merger, as you can see," he said. "But shared working is the way forward.

"At Worcester City Council we are looking at where we can deliver savings in the medium term. In the 1990s some other councils in this country went unitary and are still paying for it. We should not see it as a panacea."

Coun Geraghty, who also sits on the county council, said he was planning to discuss the matter with Coun Lord.