![\"Christchurch](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4K812Z5_020525NMCHRISTCHURCH03_jpg.jpeg\")
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\nChristchurch City mayor Phil Mauger.
\nPhoto: RNZ\/Nathan Mckinnon\n<\/p>\n
An Ashburton councillor says Christchurch City mayor Phil Mauger should “put his big pants on” and show his cards for amalgamation plans.<\/p>\n
Ashburton councillors reduced eight amalgamation options down to five – none of which include Christchurch City, at a district council meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
During the meeting, councillor Tony Todd suggested Christchurch City Council needed to step up and lead.<\/p>\n
Mauger should “put his big pants on and say we want to go to a super city”, Todd said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“That would solve some of the issues if we knew what they were doing.”<\/p>\n
A greater Christchurch council including Rolleston, Lincoln, and Prebbleton is logical because the towns would be “close to one city anyway” in a few years, Todd said.<\/p>\n
![\"Ashburton](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JN5O2W_Tony_Todd2_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAshburton councillor Tony Todd.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
Mauger was unavailable for comment as he is in China on his Sister City visit, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Councils have less than two months to put forward proposals for amalgamations – or face a potential government-imposed arrangement.<\/p>\n
Canterbury, with 11 councils spread across the region, is yet to reach an agreement.<\/p>\n
The Canterbury Mayoral Forum, made up of the region’s mayors and Environment Canterbury’s chair, meets again on Friday.<\/p>\n
Ashburton mayor Liz McMillan said Ashburton has been discussing options with other councils, but no one is “showing their cards” which made it difficult for decision making.<\/p>\n
Ashburton was not 100 per cent on it’s options, she said.<\/p>\n
“And the clock is ticking.”<\/p>\n
Almost all of Ashburton’s scenarios suggested its move would be alongside the creation of a Greater Christchurch Council, except for an Ashburton-Selwyn merger, which received only two votes of support for further analysis.<\/p>\n
The option of amalgamation with the three South Canterbury Councils was the only one to receive unanimous support.<\/p>\n
Ashburton ruled out the option of going alone as it wouldn’t meet government requirements.<\/p>\n
Deputy mayor Richard Wilson supported a South Canterbury merger and the opportunity for the Ashburton District to have a “bigger voice”, and there are similarities between the communities.<\/p>\n
“They have approached us. They are courting us.”<\/p>\n
In looking south, he said many people in Mid Canterbury would look to their holiday destination in Twizel and Tekapo.<\/p>\n
A merger with Selwyn would be the “worst case scenario for us” due to the population imbalance, making Ashburton the minority, he said.<\/p>\n
He said the council should be looking for a willing partner that offers good representation rather than “pick one because it’s richer than the other”.<\/p>\n
The councillors decided they would have another round of engagement with the community, but couldn’t decide on the contents of that.<\/p>\n
The five options that received a majority vote in support were:<\/p>\n
Ashburton extending to include the Rangitata South catchment and Rural Selwyn
\nAshburton with South Canterbury (Timaru\/Mackenzie\/Waimate)
\nAshburton with South Canterbury and Waitaki
\nProvincial Mid-North Canterbury (Hurunui, Rural Waimakariri, Rural Selwyn, and Ashburton)
\nProvincial Canterbury (all of Canterbury outside of the Greater Christchurch boundary)<\/p>\n
McMillan sad the council would workshop the scenarios next week, with the benefit of whatever is gained from the Mayoral Forum.<\/p>\n
This would include looking at financial analysis around assets and debt, regional council functions, and representation options in each scenario.<\/p>\n
Councillor Phill Everest opposed the decision to delay further discussion due to the government’s looming 9 August deadline for proposals.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christchurch City mayor Phil Mauger. Photo: RNZ\/Nathan Mckinnon An Ashburton councillor says Christchurch City mayor Phil Mauger should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-474217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}