A CRUNCH meeting to help decide the future of local government in Chorley takes place next week.

Councillors are expected to recommend that Chorley is governed as a unitary authority if a northwest parliament is set up after a referendum in October 2004.

The local boundary committee -- made up of seven councillors -- meets at the town hall next Wednesday to finalise proposals ahead of an extraordinary full council meeting the following day.

Their decision will go to the national Boundary Committee which has been assigned to conduct a local government review on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

If a regional assembly is elected, a one-tier system of local government will be adopted, signalling the end of the county council.

Chorley's boundary committee has already decided on its two preferred options after opposing a reported move by Bolton Council to swallow up the area.

Its first preference is that Chorley becomes a unitary authority and the second is a merger with Preston and South Ribble councils.

The full council will vote on the proposals on September 4.

Leader of Chorley Borough Council and chair of the local boundary committee Jack Wilson said it was impossible to predict the outcome. "I simply do not know if the recommendations will be approved by the full council," he said. "But it is important that we do have a preferred option to put to the boundary committee because otherwise our fate could be decided by three men in London."

Coun Wilson said: "If it is decided that Chorley should not be a unitary authority then it would be sensible to merge with South Ribble and Preston because we would then be in a powerful position with an authority of a third of a million people."

The outcome of the full council meeting will go to the Boundary Committee before September 8, their findings will be made public in December.