A 'COME and join us' message has been issued to Hampshire county chief Roy Perry after Southampton civic bosses agreed to press ahead with devolution plans to seize more powers from government.

As reported yesterday Southampton councillors agreed to back a bid to form a Solent Combined Authority which would include Portsmouth, Southampton and Isle of Wight councils along with the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership.

Together they would make up a board of a Solent Combined Authority (SCA) headed up by a directly elected mayor who would be responsible for an estimated budget of £30m a year which could be spent on investment across in the region.

Hampshire County Council has not been involved in the bid after a previous plan which included the whole of the the county was shelved when members of the authority objected to the imposition of a directly elected mayor.

An invitation to join the Solent deal was extended to include the southern part of Hampshire in the consortium, but that was rejected.

At an extraordinary meeting of Southampton City Council that saw members agree to push ahead with the deal, Leader Simon Letts said he would once again invite the county to come in on the deal and even predicted they would eventually join the (SCA) within a year of it being established.

"I have a letter in my in tray ready to send to Cllr Perry inviting him to join the bid," he told members. "Hampshire wants to have a model based on its own geography, I understand that.

"But they said they wouldn't join the Solent LEP and they eventually did, and the Partnership of Urban South Hampshire which they also did.

"I feel they will do the same with this offer."

In response Cllr Perry said he was happy to continue talking to Southampton and Portsmouth but said he would not want a deal that would mean Hampshire "being split".

He added: "It needs to be the whole of Hampshire."

Meanwhile, the deal hit a stumbling block on the Isle of Wight where the full council met to discuss backing the deal on Wednesday night.

Members voted narrowly against backing the bid, which will go before the executive committee next Monday for a final decision.

However, Cllr Letts remained up-beat saying the council could still press ahead at this stage and have another debate when the full detailed proposal came back from central government.