Revealed: The one council to rule them all; TOWN HALL SHAKE-UP IN NORTHUMBERLAND AGREED.

Byline: By VINCE GLEDHILL and KERRY WOOD

EXACTLY how the new look council in Northumberland will rule has been revealed.

From April there will be a county council over seeing all areas of business there.

But while the local district councils will vanish, in their place will be three committees of county councillors representing the views of communities in different geographical areas.

Each of these will be responsible for very local services delegated to them and with parish and town councillors they will scrutinise council decisions.

The committee for the north will include Alnwick, Berwick, Morpeth, the south east will be Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth, Cramlington and the west will include Hexham, Haltwhistle, Ponteland and Prudhoe.

In Durham, where plans for a single council are also underway, leaders are proposing to form 12 to 14 Area Action Partnerships, which would give people more say on their community.

Northumberland's council leader Jeff Reid said: "The new council gives everyone who cares about our county a chance to make a positive change, and one of those aspects is making local government more responsive to the needs of our communities."

Local government business in Northumberland, such as education, planning and council tax collection is currently carried out by the county council and six district councils, but from April that will be taken over by the single council.

Coun Reid said: "In agreeing the plans for area committees, we have taken on board what colleagues in the district councils and community and parish council representatives have told us.

"We are 100% committed to creating improved opportunities for Northumberland's citizens to influence decisions that affect them. These three area committees and other locality initiatives will help to deliver this, along with more responsive services and better value for money."

He added: "I look forward to a rigorous consultation with our communities on the detail of how the area committees will work."

Area committees will be responsible for managing delegated 'local services', and, along with parish and town councillors, will also be involved in area based scrutiny of decisions on bigger issues, including education and council taxes.

It was also agreed local ward councillors will have budgets to spend on local projects.

Consultation talks with community and parish council representatives took place before the local elections earlier this year. Detailed consultation with communities on local arrangements across the whole county will start this month.

In Durham the council has been running a seven-week consultation asking residents for their views.

Launching the consultation county council leader Simon Henig said: "The unitary proposals on which we are consulting are based on developing greater community engagement and a stronger local voice."