Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger says the debate over council amalgamation has become more political than practical, and has moved to reassure residents there is no deal on the table to sell or lease the city’s port.

Mauger said councils across the country had been asked whether they wanted to pursue reform over five years or two, and most chose the faster path.

“Majority of us all went out and said, let’s do it in two years, and here we are moaning that it’s happening too quick,” he said. “It might as well happen quick. Get it done, get it over and done with, and let’s get on with it.”

He said Canterbury and Waikato were large and would be more complex to work through, but he understood the rest of the country was progressing well.

Christchurch is running what Mauger described as a “pulse check” rather than a formal consultation, testing appetite for expanding the urban boundary by joining with Selwyn, or with Selwyn and Waimakariri. A previous round drew about 7000 responses, a small number of them from Selwyn and Waimakariri.

The council will collate the feedback and hear from submitters on 4 August before voting on 5 August. The results will then go to Canterbury’s Mayoral Forum, which Mauger hopes will put forward a joined-up position, though he acknowledged separate proposals could emerge.

“We just put it all forward, and the minister will make his mind up,” he said, adding he did not expect rapid decisions after 9 August given the volume of paperwork the minister would receive and an election on the horizon.

Asked whether Christchurch had been forgotten by the government or whether some councillors were picking a fight with Wellington for attention, Mauger pointed to the latter.

He said the city had done well from government and insurance funding since the earthquakes, citing work on Brougham Street, the Pages Road bridge, the stadium, Parakiore and Te Pae as projects delivered hand in hand with the government.

Mauger said he had a strong relationship with Minister for the South Island James Meager, who would pick up the phone whenever he called. He said Meager should come to Christchurch and sit in front of councillors directly rather than dealing only with the mayor, and expected that was in the pipeline.

He played down complaints that Christchurch had missed out on a formal city deal.

“We’ve been doing city deals since the earthquake,” he said. “The government doesn’t come up to the boundary of Christchurch and burrow a whole lot of money into the city. That’s definitely not going to happen. They’ll just assist us to get things moving along, working together.”

On the future of the port, Mauger confirmed an unsolicited bid from DP World and three rūnanga was sitting with Christchurch City Holdings, which would consider it at a board meeting at the end of the month.

He said the council’s position was unambiguous.

“Our letter of expectation is bloody clear. We don’t want them to sell it or lease it out,” he said. “I stood in my campaigning saying we shouldn’t lease it out, we shouldn’t sell it, and that stuff still stands in my head.”

Mauger said a meeting had been held in Lyttelton on Friday for people to voice their views, but he did not see the bid as a cause for concern. He said he had to be careful not to appear predetermined, while making clear he intended to stick by his stance.

Put to him that DP World appeared to be seeking social licence through a partnership with local iwi, and that a strong proposal would not need it, Mauger said that was probably true. He said the parties had reportedly been working together for around 18 months, and that an earlier unsolicited bid to buy all of Christchurch City Holdings had not made it to the council.

“I think it would be a very hard road to hoe to get that across the line,” he said.

Asked what the three rūnanga stood to gain, Mauger said he expected they would have money in the deal along with seats on the board, but he had left the detail to Christchurch City Holdings.

“I leave that for Christchurch City Holdings to sort the wheat from the chaff,” he said.