Wansbeck councillor is braced for his second council reorganisation

The newcomer was named after the river which flows through it, because no one could come up with an acceptable amalgam of its three constituent parts.

All over Northumberland similar arrangements were taking place, with about 20 small, autonomous councils being amalgamated to form new district or borough authorities known as Wansbeck, Blyth Valley, Castle Morpeth, Tynedale, Alnwick and Berwick.

Then as now, the basic Government mantra behind the shake-up was 'bigger is better', replacing a proliferation of small councils in rural areas with larger, more efficient organisations and their accompanying economies of scale.

In Northumberland, tiny authorities covering towns such as Ashington, Morpeth, Amble and Hexham - each providing their own local services such as refuse collection, housing and street cleaning - were combined with similar neighbouring urban or rural councils to create six new and bigger councils.

It was all part of a new two-tier system for shire counties like Northumberland, with the new district authorities operating below the county council, which had responsibility for things like education, social services and fire cover.

That structure is now being dismantled to make way for a single, all-purpose super council for the whole of Northumberland.

Coun Devon, who has been a strong supporter of the alternative option of two separate unitary councils for the county, said the two reorganisations have been like chalk and cheese, in terms of controversy, political in-fighting and scale.

"It has been mayhem this time around compared to what happened in 1974. The move to a single unitary council would have been hard enough, without the fact that last year's elections meant Labour lost political control of the county and those who supported the idea lost their seats.

"This current reorganisation has been kicked all over the place and in the Press and on TV, and it was mayhem before it got under way."

Back in 1974, the Wansbeck shake-up involved three similar Labour-controlled councils coming together to improve service delivery, and was never tainted by the controversy which has dogged today's reorganisation.

"What we were doing then was nowhere near as severe as it is this time round, in terms of getting rid of jobs, and people knew it had to come because there were clear benefits in the long run.

"It was really a quite painless process and all went pretty smoothly. People in Wansbeck didn't notice any real change in the way they got their council services because we were three such similar authorities.

"It also resulted in new sports centres being built in both Ashington and Newbiggin."

Coun Devon believes the new reorganisation heralds a tough period.

"It is going to be a very difficult exercise, and it could take five years or so before things settle down, but they have to make it work."

THAT WAS THEN

Local government in England and Wales last underwent a major reorganisation in April 1974, when the Government introduced a uniform, two-tier structure and abolished single-tier areas such as county boroughs.

The aim was to tackle structural problems, partly caused by the proliferation of small district authorities in rural areas such as Northumberland and County Durham. The reforms created six new metropolitan counties in large urban areas - including Tyne and Wear - with metropolitan districts below them.

In other areas, shire counties such as Northumberland and Durham provided the top tier of local government with new district and borough councils under them.

John Devon was talking to Dave Black in the first of a three-day series on the reorganisation