Portsmouth City Council's leader has rejected the idea of a giant new authority taking over from Hampshire's councils.

As exclusively revealed by the Daily Echo yesterday, talks will take place over the creation of a so called “Solent City Combined Authority” led by a Boris Johnston style mayor.

This new local government authority would have greater control over how billions of pounds of public funds are spent in the county than councils individually do at the moment.

Southampton City Council, Councillor Simon Letts, has revealed he is to meet Portsmouth's leader Cllr Donna Jones to discuss the idea further.

But Cllr Jones has dismissed any alliance between Portsmouth and Southampton, believing councils should stay as they are and team up to obtain more powers from the government.

“I don't envisage necessarily a collaboration between Portsmouth and Southampton, but we need to be talking about the wider authority agenda,” Cllr Jones is reported as saying.

Talks on the devolution proposals will take place with the Government this month.

This has led to speculation that some councils could disappear.

Under the proposals the “Solent City” would range from the Waterside in the West to Havant in the east, could form the basis of a new authority, which would sit above the current city councils.