EAST Hampshire District Council leader Ferris Cowper says a change of direction over devolution which saw opposition to an elected mayor vanish, was to an extent forced on the council.

Last week he and leaders of partner authorities on the Isle of Wight, and in Havant, Portsmouth, Southampton, Eastleigh and Fareham, heard their bid for a Solent Combined Authority (SCA) had government support.

Cllr Cowper said: “It was made clear that the Government is intent on re-organising local government; everyone will get a directly elected mayor, like it or not.

“East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) is one of a pilot group calling the shots on what sort of directly elected mayor we have.

“The eight councils have done this by insisting on a ‘constrained mayor’ model.

“At a vote of virtually all EHDC councillors all but three favoured the constrained mayor option.”

This will see a cabinet of the eight council leaders support the elected mayor, and have a say on how millions of pounds of devolution money is spent in the new SCA area.

Cllr Cowper is also confident devolution won’t open the door for more houses in East Hampshire.

He said: “I have seen the schedule of housing commitments submitted to the Treasury and the numbers are the same as those in our Local Plan.

“The Solent bid offers a requirement that housing numbers can only change if all councils agree, in other words each of us has a veto.”

Concerns that as seven members of the SCA are coastal and urban, while East Hampshire is rural and landlocked, EHDC could be out-voted on projects and funding, are unfounded, he added.

Cllr Cowper said: “We have excellent partnership working with Havant and Fareham, and Portsmouth want us in because the main London to Portsmouth transport links pass through our district. And the finances of the SCA don’t add up without the business rates from East Hampshire.

“The SCA structure insists every leader is a cabinet member with a vote.”

An earlier failed devolution bid by all the Hampshire district and city councils, led by Hampshire County Council, left EHDC open to far more risk, Cllr Cowper stressed.

He said: “It proposed a housing delivery board that would over-ride all of the councils’ local plans for housing, and that is one of the main reasons we did not support that bid.

“It had none of the SCA safeguards in it.”

He added: “The SCA is a combined authority, and individually EHDC and the town and parish councils will all continue to exist.”