Greg Brownless is the new mayor of Tauranga after receiving 8513 votes according to preliminary results.

Greg was taking his mother out when he received a phone call with the news this afternoon.

Greg Brownless.

'I was getting my mother at a rest home after taking her out. She found at the same time. She was pretty excited. She was sitting in the front seat of the car and she said: ‘Oh I wish I could hug you'.

Greg says he's excited to receive a leading number of votes in the 2016 Local Body Elections, but is nervous at the same time.

'It's a big responsibility. That makes you feel a little nervous. I'm looking forward to meeting my fellow counsellors and continuing to do what I do quite a bit which is getting out about and meeting people in the city.”

He was surprised to have received about 2000 votes more than Kelvin Clout.

'I thought it might have been closer. It could have been any one of the number of candidates.”

His future plans for the city include firstly getting together and meeting fellow candidates.

'First of all we've got to get together with the candidates and have a chat and decide what we're going to get stuck into first. In a way it's business as usual. A lot of planning has been done for things that will carry on.

'A lot of decisions will be surrounding the big job of the Civic Heart.”

Greg would like to thank those who voted in the 2016 Local Body Elections. I think it's good they exercised their democratic right.

'I will also be looking at what the other candidates offered and that I thought were good ideas.

'I think that's an important part of being mayor is being able to work with everybody and listen to what they have to say.”