Proposals to cut police forces across England and Wales from 43 to as few as 17 were abandoned in July.

They would have seen the Durham, Northumbria and Cleveland forces merge to form a North East "super force".

Other police forces, including Durham and Northumbria, are submitting similar cost claims to the government.

Cleveland Police favoured a smaller-scale merger with neighbouring Durham.

'Enormous cost'

Authority chairman Dave McLuckie said: "We now want to play an equally central role in looking to the future - working with the Home Office and colleagues in other forces and authorities - to examine the options for sharing expertise and resources in tackling key strategic issues.

"There remains one issue left where we firmly believe the government must accept its responsibilities, and that is the question of the enormous cost which has arisen as a direct result of the deeply-flawed manner in which this whole review was conducted for so many months.

"All public bodies have to meet the financial consequences of their actions and we can see no reason why this should not apply to the government in this instance.

"It would be entirely wrong to expect local communities to foot very large bills for something they never wanted in the first place."