WORCESTER MP Mike Foster has poured fuel on the fire by claiming up to £52m extra cash could be spent on schools and social services if all the councils in the county merged into a unitary authority.

He was referring to a report from finance bosses at County Hall suggesting reserve cash in each district council could be freed up if a merger happened. There is a total of £67m of reserves stashed away by the seven councils in Worcestershire.

The report claims only £15m of it would need to be kept in the bank under the merger. Finance chiefs also suggest annual savings would total a minimum of £15m per year.

Politicians across all parties are split on the move, although county council leader Coun George Lord favours it.

Mr Foster added: "This analysis is staggering. It shows just why George Lord was right in suggesting that a single council should be considered for Worcestershire.

"Politicians should be looking at how to deliver more and better front-line services not feathering their own nests and saying we don't want change.

"Here we have a perverse situation of a Tory council saying we could cut back on admin and bureaucracy, and other Tories bleating we shouldn't.

"The whole thing is plain crazy and should rightly get people angry."

Vic Allison, finance chief at Wychavon District council said: "There is a weakness in the argument - of those reserves, £10m of it belongs to us, and those reserves are already earmarked for other things.

"If the money was just sitting there, I could see the point, but from our point of view it isn't."

It will be discussed at a County Hall meeting today.