THE county of Worcestershire is in the "last chance saloon" if it is to avoid eventual abolition, the Vale's MP has claimed.

Peter Luff told members of Evesham Rotary Club that the Government's White Paper - expected next month - on plans for regional government was the last chance to save the county.

The Mid Worcestershire MP, a critic of regionalism in government, said he was "fearful" of what might be proposed in the White Paper.

Speaking to the Rotary Club last Tuesday, Mr Luff said local councils, especially Worcestershire County Council, would lose powers.

"The result will be to make decision taking more remote from voters and to create more uncertainty over exactly who is responsible for what," he added.

He went on: "The Government has successfully seduced some county councillors in Worcestershire into believing that they are not on the list for abolition. They have been deceived.

"The Government are already stripping counties of their planning and education powers."

Mr Luff claimed local education authorities were being "abolished by stealth", adding: "Planning authorities are already going as part of the Government's declared plans.

"Social services, the other major function of county councils, are being merged into health authorities. That function, too, is being killed by stealth. If planning, education and social services go, what will be left for the county councils to do?

"It is a two-stage process. The people of the West Midlands will be offered a referendum on the basis that they can keep the county councils but, a few years later, when the county councils have withered on the vine, they, too, will be scrapped.

"We should be under no illusion. This is the last chance saloon for Worcestershire."

Mr Luff said people in Worcestershire did not want their affairs run from Birmingham.