Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger has lost his push to expand the city’s boundaries by a single vote, with councillors instead opting to keep Christchurch as it is while taking on Environment Canterbury’s responsibilities.

Mauger had backed a larger unitary authority that would have absorbed the urban centres of Selwyn and Waimakariri, a position that put him at odds with neighbouring councils.

“That was a very close vote, as you may have seen. I was keen on expanding Christchurch out, much to the disgust of our neighbours, who now will be my friends again,” he said.

“The councillors went along and said let’s just concentrate on ECan. It’s going to cost too much to go across the boundary, and I respect that. It’s not that I win or lose, but I lost my one by one vote, and that’s democracy. I’m not going to put my head in the sand and cry about it. Just get on with it.”

Asked what a bigger council could have delivered, Mauger said it would have brought the South Island’s largest urban area under one authority, with a substantial rural district alongside it.

“You’d have probably from Ashburton all the way to Hurunui inclusive as one great big rural, which gives them the 100,000 people. It looks after all the catchment of the water coming into Christchurch. It’s one big area that civil defence can focus on.”

He was blunt about why he never wanted the city swallowing rural districts.

“People in rural do not want city slickers telling them what to do in their paddock, and that is so clear all the way through.”

Some councillors have previously argued neighbouring districts should help pay for Christchurch facilities while resisting any merger. Mauger said there were two ways of looking at that.

“We’ve got all the nice toys in here, and we say we’re paying for them. But then on the other hand, a hell of a lot of people drive into Christchurch and spend their money and earn their money and go to the shop and buy their food on a regular basis every day. It’s swings and roundabouts.”

The mayor conceded the government could still reject the council’s preferred model and impose a different structure.

“It could do. Yeah, that could happen.”

He said he had received no signal from ministers about their preference, describing the chatter as hearsay.

Submissions close on 9 August, with feedback expected the following month.

“That’s D Day, so to speak, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens,” he said. “From what I’m told, sometime in September we’ll get a bit more, that they will have evaluated what’s gone in.”

Mauger said the shape of local government would be clearer before October’s local body elections, but not settled.

“We might know the lay of the land to a certain extent, but we won’t know the finish of it, because that’ll take an 18 month sort of period up to the next local body election to get all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed.”

He said smaller councils had been left with little choice.

“Waimate only got 7000 odd ratepayers. They could not afford to be a unitary by themselves, so they had to amalgamate. Kaikōura, to a point, was similar. That’s why the government said there’s going to have to be some amalgamation here, because there’s not going to be enough money for you guys to do what you need to do.”

Nationally, he believes the current structure is bloated.

“Through the whole of New Zealand, the 71 councils, if the government want to get it down to, I’ll say 25, so it’s 31, they might be happy that they get it down that far. There is too many.”

The process has come at a cost to council staff.

“It’s a bugger, actually, and a lot of staff have put one hell of a lot of effort into it. All it does is take them away from what they’re employed to do. Work has fallen by the wayside because they haven’t had time to do it. But the guys got onto it really good, and the advice they’ve given us has been absolutely excellent, first class.”

Asked how he would describe the decision, Mauger returned to where he started.

“It’s democracy, and that’s life. Let’s get on with it. The cards we’ve been dealt, and onward and upward.”