Christchurch Bike Share is still pulling its bikes off the streets, despite the council's negotiations with an alternative supplier ending.

The Christchurch City Council have pulled out of negotiations with bike share provider Mobike, leaving the city without a bike share scheme as summer approaches.

Current bike share trial with Christchurch Bike Share is wrapping up its service in the city. It started removing its bikes from streets this week. The council told Christchurch Bike Share in April that it would not be the city's permanent scheme.

The council had not previously confirmed it was negotiating with Mobike, though it was widely known for some time – as was the ongoing difficulties with the contract negotiations.

SUPPLIED/SIMON WATERHOUSE Christchurch Bike Share project manager Robert Henderson says Christchurch should be looking at bike share as part of the public transport network and not just trying to see how many bikes or scooters they sort of get dumped across the city.

In a statement, the council said it would "take a different tack". It will now consider permit applications from companies.

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Mobike head of international operations Mark Lin said Mobike was happy with the new direction the council had taken and would consider operating under a permit system like it did in other cities around the world.

JACK TAYLOR The Christchurch City Council's negotiations with bike share operator Mobike have ended.

Lin said he could not comment on the specifics of the negotiation, but Mobike was "always happy to work with all local governments".

Council head of planning and strategic transport David Griffiths said the market for active shared transport such as bike share was constantly changing with new providers and technology emerging.

"Our focus is shifting away from procuring a single service and instead focusing on enabling infrastructure and overseeing regulations."

Griffiths said Christchurch was an attractive proposition for operators.

"We have good infrastructure and have already developed the expected standards for providers to successfully operate in Christchurch."

When asked how many staff hours had gone into the negotiations and preparation work, Griffiths said staff time was not recorded. He said there had been significant lessons for the council in running the process which can be applied to similar requests.

The issue was discussed in the publicly excluded part of Thursday's council meeting, though Councillors Aaron Keown, Deon Swiggs, Tim Scandrett and Mike Davidson voted against the report being discussed in the public excluded section of the meeting.

The developments have not convinced Christchurch Bike Share to stay on the streets.

Project manager Robert Henderson said he was still packing up the scheme as what the council now planned to do was unknown, but he really wanted the scheme to be part of the city.

"We need to now actually look at what they're saying and get more info to decide if it's something we want to be a part of. The worry is, as a local company, we can't actually compete with these massive, venture-capital-funded companies.

"It is frustrating that we've worked on this for six years (including background), council's worked on it for two years, and the outcome seems to be some new types of forms … it does seem like a lot of wasted time and energy."

He said Christchurch should be looking at bike share as part of the public transport network and not just trying to see how many bikes or scooters they get dumped across the city.

Henderson said the council's new approach had been used in other cities which still had massive issues – "this regulation and permitting idea, it's like an artificial mechanism that feels like some level of control but it's potentially not".

More than one councillor has said they would have been happy with the current operator. It is understood the council is making the switch due to cost reasons.

The council's 2017/18 annual plan included $1.2m over three years to support a city wide bike share. Documents show the council requested expressions of interest in December 2017, receiving five proposals; Mobike's was the only one which fell inside the council's budget.

The council started negotiating with Mobike as a preferred supplier in April, with the council making clear there were "high expectations for service performance". The two parties were working through the issues but it was taking longer than the council wanted.

On August 28, the council was informed Mobike had restructured and the staff the council had been negotiating with no longer worked there. The council then decided to end negotiations.

Mobike is a dockless bike sharing system in which bikes can be left anywhere. It uses a smartphone app to locate and unlock the distinctive orange and silver bikes.

The Chinese company is the largest bike share company in the world, operating in more than 200 cities in 19 countries.

Issues with the dockless bike share model have been well documented around the world, especially where bikes were dumped indiscriminately around cities. Overseas, city authorities have impounded thousands of the bikes.

Similar operators recently pulled out of major Australian cities over regulatory issues. Mobike remains in its Australian markets.

The council recently announced a three-month trial of 700 shared electric scooters from US company Lime, expected to start later this month.