Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker is defending proposals for public transport that cut funding to some projects and delay others.
The council's draft long term council community plan includes a budget of $144 million for public transport - more than $100 million less than an earlier plan.
The plan suggests deferring the building of a $100 million new bus exchange for up to two years and cutting the budget for cycleways by $7 million.
Mr Parker says there was no way the previous plan could have been delivered without rate increases of up to 10%.
Under the draft plan, he says rate rises won't exceed 4%.
