A senior county councillor has left his role after a vote that saw elections postponed. Conservative Bill Borrett, who was responsible for public health at Norfolk County Council, announced he had left the cabinet on Friday.

Southampton councillors have voted to support plans for a Hampshire and Isle of Wight devolution deal. It would mean the creation of a strategic combined authority that moves power and money from Whitehall to local areas, probably with an elected mayor.

Three rural councils have told the government they want to be considered together as a Wessex group under proposed devolution plans. In a meeting on Thursday evening, Wiltshire Council voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining Dorset and Somerset councils to move forward with a new Heart of Wessex combined authority.

The majority of councillors have voted to ask the government to put Suffolk on the fast track for devolution [/BBC] A council has voted to ask the government to postpone the local elections in May and fast track the county for devolution.

The councils, however, have made it clear that this would not be a merger and that each council would still be responsible for their local areas.

Green councillors have called for extraordinary full council meetings in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove to debate the devolution plans ahead of the special cabinet meetings decide the next step.

The meeting, which took place on Thursday afternoon, discussed the plans and went in favour of the government's Devolution White Paper. The government announced in December it would would like to reorganise how local government works and do away with district and county councils in favour of unitary authorities,