THE fate of North Yorkshire Police is to be decided next week.

The chief constables of the four police forces of North, West and South Yorkshire, and Humberside, and the chairmen of the four police authorities, have been summoned to a meeting with Home Secretary Charles Clarke tomorrow at the Home Office in London.

They will learn which of the two options for amalgamation he plans for them - a merger with North, West and South Yorkshire and Humberside to create a regional force, or two smaller mergers, which would see North Yorkshire joined with West Yorkshire.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "The purpose of the meeting is for the Home Secretary to announce his decision as to the way he sees the future for policing structures within the region based on an assessment of the delivery of protective services - such as counter-terrorism, serious and organised crime, major crime, civil contingencies, critical incidents, public order and strategic roads policing."

He said at a meeting between all four chief constables and police authority chairmen "everyone continued to emphasise the importance of maintaining a high level of local policing and their commitment to providing assurance of that high level of local policing to their communities".

They will next meet just before the meeting with the Home Secretary and again immediately afterwards, to consider the "implications, timescales and necessary processes" as a result of the announcement.

North Yorkshire Police Authority chairman Jane Kenyon had urged Mr Clarke to put an end to the uncertainty surrounding the direction of the force's future as quickly as possible.

Today, Mr Clarke was outlining to Parliament his plans for the future of forces in the south and the east of the country.

Updated: 10:59 Monday, March 20, 2006