DARWEN today reacted with fury over plans to drop the town's name from its council title if a shake-up of local government goes ahead.

The Boundary Committee has presented two options for changing East Lancashire's council structure if people vote in favour of regional government.

A regional assembly - due to be voted on in a referendum later this year - could prompt a massive shake-up of local government in East Lancashire.

Two options will be presented to people living outside Blackburn with Darwen - which is already a unitary council - about which form of unitary government they prefer.

One option is for a county-wide authority, excluding Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool, while the other involves expanding Blackburn with Darwen into Hyndburn and calling it Blackburn with Hyndburn Council.

The remaining four East Lancashire councils - Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale and Ribble Valley - would merge into a single body called East Lancashire Council.

The Boundary Committee's idea for the Blackburn/Hyndburn authority has appalled people in Hyndburn, who don't want to be 'invaded' by Blackburn, and has outraged people in Darwen, who are fuming at the possibility of the town's name been dropped.

Darwen was added to the council's title in 1998 when the authority became a unitary. Before that, it had been simply Blackburn Borough Council - despite Darwen residents coming under their larger neighbour's control in 1974.

Rossendale and Darwen MP Janet Anderson said: "I am certain the people of Darwen will be furious if its name is removed from the title of the local authority, as am I.

"I feel the two authorities are totally unbalanced in size and scope. I shall write to deputy Prime Minister John Prescott asking for a rethink and at least one extra option on the ballot paper.

"In particular I shall ask him to ensure the proud name of Darwen appears in the title of any new local authority."

Opposition Conservative leader Colin Rigby, who lives in Turton, said: "This idea will cause anger. Darwen people are very proud of their identity and won't want it lost."

Karimeh Foster, councillor for Whitehall, said: "I am in total disbelief and angry. We fought so hard to be merged with Blackburn and put on the map.."

Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, Sir Bill Taylor, said: "It was for this sort of reason we asked that people in our borough be allowed to vote on whether the borough is extended or not, but the Boundary Committee has decided not to go along with that.

"We shouldn't lose sight of the big prize, which is regional government."

The idea of merging with Blackburn with Darwen was greeted with horror by Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe. He said: "It's set out as them taking over and we can't allow that to happen. We will fight this tooth and nail. People need to vote no to preserve our heritage. People in Hyndburn don't want to be ruled from Blackburn. We'd be the poor relation - look at Darwen."

Blackburn MP and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he favoured splitting East Lancashire in two rather than a county-wide authority.