With less than 24 hours left before local government election nominations close the Western Bay of Plenty community boards don't have enough people standing.

The Ōmokoroa Community board has no nominations so far, the Waihī Beach and Maketu Community Boards have one candidate each and Katikati and Te Puke have three nominations each.

There are four seats to be filled on each board.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council chief executive officer John Holyoake says a community board provides the voice of the community.

'It is a significant opportunity to bring the voice of the community into decision making,” he says.

'That's why people should be involved.”

Holyoake is realistic about why people might not be standing for the positions.

'We get some pretty blunt feedback from the community and quite often it's quite inappropriate.

'If you're actually living within a community and having to be with those people, I think that's quite challenging.”

If there aren't enough nominations to fill the number of vacancies for the community boards a by-lection would be trigged, says general manager strategy and community Rachael Davie.

'After that by-election if those seats are still not filled, then there is the option that's available to council either to go through another by-election process or to go through an appointment process,” she says.

If a by-election is needed it wil be in February 2023.

The council has been running a ‘Generation Change' campaign to encourage greater diversity and attract more people into elected positions on the council.

Holyoake says he is 'really pleased” with the number of nominations for the councillor and mayor positions.

'We're definitely going to get a good democratic process.

'We've started to see some diversity come through, so that's really neat.”

There are seven people standing for mayor, three people standing in the Katikati-Waihī Beach Ward, with three seats to be filled, and five candidates in both the Kaimai Ward and Maketu-Te Puke Ward, with four seats to be filled in each of them.

Holyoake is encouraging anyone that cares about what's going on in their community to stand for their community board or council.

'You've never had a greater opportunity to represent your community.”

Nominations close at noon Friday, August 12.

Nominations received for Western Bay of Plenty District Council positions:

Mayor

John Scrimgeour

Don Thwaites

James Denyer

Paul Haimona

Rodney Joyce

Mark Boyle

Hori BOP Leaming

‍

Katikati-Waihī Beach Ward (3 seats)

Allan Sole

James Denyer

Rodney Joyce

‍

Kaimai Ward (4 seats)

Murray Grainger

Don Thwaites

Tracey Coxhead

Margaret Murray-Benge

Matthew Farrell

‍

Maketu-Te Puke Ward (4 seats)

John Scrimgeour

Paul Haimona

Attiya Andrew

Richard Crawford

Kassie Ellis

Waihī Beach Community Board (4 seats)

Ross Goudie

Katikati Community Board (4 seats)

John Clements

Andy Earl

Kamal Yadav

Ōmokoroa Community Board (4 seats)

‍None

Te Puke Community Board (4 seats)

Richard Crawford

Kassie Ellis

Neena Chauhan

‍Maketu Community Board (4 seats)

Laura Rae

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.