The Western Bay of Plenty District has four new councillors to represent them, who will sit alongside new mayor James Denyer and the seven other councillors who retained their seats.

The new council has been chosen after the local government elections on October 8.

Tracey Coxhead joins sitting councillors Don Thwaites, Margaret Murray-Benge and Murray Grainger as a Kaimai Ward Councillor.

Coxhead lives in Te Puna and says she would bring her expertise in finance to council.

The 58-year old says challenges facing the district were the upcoming local government reforms 'which are more of challenge for the council, but it affects the community hugely”.

These include the Three Waters Reform, repealing the Resource Management Act and the Future for Local Government review, due on October 28, which is looking at how local democracy and governance needs to evolve over the next 30 years.

Tracey Coxhead. Photo: Supplied

Coxhead says there are the 'usual challenges” around the quality of roading and transport and, infrastructure around the proposed builds as well.

'The key to being a councillor is we have to listen to our communities and … our rate payers and that needs to be our go to for our decisions,” says the mother of four says:.

She says it also comes back to what you can 'actually achieve”.

'You have to be realistic. You don't go into council and change the world … but it's about persevering, it's about being persistent on the really key issues.”

'I'm really looking forward to the challenges that we're going to face together as a council.”

Richard Crawford and Andy Wichers are the two new Te Puke Maketu Ward Councillors they join John Scrimgeour and Grant Dally.

Richard Crawford. Photo: Supplied

Crawford was the chair of the Te Puke Community Board for the previous triennium and wanted to 'step up” and run for council.

'I felt it's the right place for me to be in my life so I decided to stand.”

When asked what skills he would bring as a councillor Crawford says: 'I'm a real community man”.

The 65-year-old spent 13 years as a volunteer firefighter, chairs the Daily Charitable Trust a not for profit organisation that fosters community connections and runs his own building company.

'A lot of people just think council's got all the answers, but the answer is not just in council. The answer is with council and community working together.”

Crawford has four children and three grandchildren and lives in Te Puke with his wife.

He says he is looking forward to being able to vote on decisions in council now, whereas when he was on the community board he could be involved in discussions but not vote.

Andy Wichers. Photo: Alisha Evans/SunLive.

Wichers has lived in Te Puke for 28 years and has been involved in the community through the junior football club and served on the board of trustees at three different schools.

With his four children no longer in the school system he says he 'weighed up whether to continue on the [school] board or to step up the council.”

He says 'being new to the game” there 'will be a lot of learning” to do but it's something he enjoys and he had already started reading the legislation.

One of things the 57-year-old was keen to work on is council's communication with the community.

'Just trying to create better avenues of information to go back [to the community],” he says.

With a background in engineering and design he was 'passionate about the ability for a team to solve problems” and says he was looking forward to doing this on council.

'Especially when you've got a team that sees it from different perspectives. I'm a very big team player. I highly value that team approach to problem solving.”

Rodney Joyce. Photo: SunLive.

New to the Katikati-Waihī Beach Ward is Rodney Joyce, who also stood for mayor. He joins sitting councillors Anne Henry and Allan Sole.

The former financial journalist who now runs a business in Katikati says: 'My first goal in the election was to raise awareness of the council's finances” and what he claims is 'the mountain that its debt that it's building”.

Joyce, 56, says his second goal 'was to get on council to try and do something about it” and he was 'successful” in both of those goals.

'Now the real work begins because the same issues that made me stand are still there.”

The father of three says roads still need to be maintained and new infrastructure created, but things can built 'responsibly not crazily”.

'To avoid future constraints we need to make adjustments soon.”

When asked how on board he thought the other councillors would be with this, he replied: 'That's my challenge.”

'It's teamwork … I think you chip away at it as a culture of spending that we need to adjust.”

The mayor and councillors will be sworn in at the inaugural Western Bay of Plenty District Council meeting for the triennium on November 7.

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