The Western Bay of Plenty district is merging into three wards and councillor numbers are reducing from 12 to 11 following a Western Bay of Plenty District Council decision this week.

The new option was chosen after public consultation and submissions on the electoral representation review.

The council originally went into the submission process proposing eight councillors representing three wards instead of the current 12 councillors and five wards, but mayor Ross Paterson is happy with the final result, which he says is in line with what the community wants.

The 11 councillor solution also slots neatly into the population figures for each ward, says Ross.

The three new wards are based on communities of interest centred on the service centres which are Katikati, Tauranga and Te Puke.

Ross says the decision to choose 11 councillors instead of eight was made after listening to submissions.

'The community felt eight was getting a bit too light,” says Ross. 'A number felt they really wanted more people round the decision making table and very strongly from the areas like Waihi Beach, and Maketu which are on the extremities and felt a little bit exposed.

'What we have now is three areas with two lots of four councillors working in those areas, and then one ward has three councillors.

Waihi Beach which is now in the western ward can put two councillors on their community board, as can the other wards. In the past they could only put one councillor on the community board.

'Now we are teaming better, we have got more councillors around those issues for those wards,” says Ross.

'We have still got to go through a process. If it's accepted Waihi Beach will find itself with three councillors looking after their interests and two councillors sitting on the community board.

'It just strengthens governance, the numbers of people round the table to help make decisions and get things done.”

The intention is to bring the council into line with the Local Electoral Act requirement that every councillor should represent a similar constituency.

The decision will see the District split into three wards – Western (Waihi Beach, Katikati and Matakana Island), Central (Kaimai, Omokoroa, Te Puna) and Eastern (Te Puke and Maketu).

Each councillor will represent about the same number of people within their ward, staying within a 10 per cent range of the average. It equates to a councillor per population ratio of Western 3:4055; Central 4:4093 and Eastern 4:4317. The five community boards remain unchanged.

Under the three ward split the eastern ward has two community boards - Te Puke and Maketu. Central Ward has one - Omokoroa, and the Western Ward has two - Katikati and Waihi Beach.

The eastern ward will drop from five to four councillors.

Following public notification of the decision, there will be a one month timeframe for appeals to be lodged with the Local Government Commission.

If no appeals are lodged, the proposal will be adopted by Council later this year and will take effect from the Local Government Elections to be held on October 12, 2013.