Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore will endorse the request from Banks Peninsula District Council Mayor Bob Parker at tomorrow’s (Thursday, 28 February) full city council meeting.

Mr Moore says it will be important for city ratepayers to be sure that any agreement by the councils to work together will put no pressure on city council finances.

"The benefits of such a process are likely to lie principally with Banks Peninsula rather than with Christchurch but at the same time there are unlikely to be any ongoing costs for the City resulting from any changes," Mr Moore says.

Mr Parker says work done by the Local Government Commission before the amalgamation referendum in March 2000 showed there were potential cost savings to be made while remaining as separate local bodies. In the referendum, Christchurch voted against joining with Banks Peninsula.

"I’m not talking about a back-door amalgamation," Mr Parker says. "There was a strong political message from Christchurch and from many in Banks Peninsula that they did not want that.

"But we have a problem in Banks Peninsula. We’ve got high rates and need to find ways of being more efficient, lowering our costs and making the rates dollar go further.

Note: Section 114S of the Local Government Act provides for Joint Committees between councils. That the Joint Committee comprise 4 Elected Members from each Council.