Phil Nixon re-elected as South Taranaki mayor

Phil Nixon is back for a second term as mayor and fourth term as part of the council. Photo / Bevan Conley

Phil Nixon will be South Taranaki mayor for a second term.

Progress results have Nixon winning in a landslide with 5243 votes while his only challenger, Walter Smith, had 583.

"I'm ready and up for another three years of leading our district," Nixon said.

"My big thing is completing a lot of what we already have in place. We have just had a pretty difficult three years with Covid-19 and government reforms."

It will be Nixon's fourth term as part of the council, having previously been a councillor and deputy mayor.

Nixon said he would remain "adamantly opposed" to the government's current Three Waters reform model.

"I absolutely support that we need change but I don't like the four-entity model.

"Communities for Local Democracy (C4LD) have a really good alternative, and before the government was even talking about it we were doing work in Taranaki on aggregating our water services amongst our three councils.

"I would still like to be able to look at that."

Every councillor in the district was elected unopposed.

Te Aroha Hohaia will be the only new face on the council in the Te Hāwera general ward.

Andy Beccard, Celine Filbee, Te Aroha Hohaia and Diana Reid were elected unopposed in the Te Hāwera ward, Bryan Roach and Aarun Langton in Taranaki Coastal, Brian Rook and Robert Northcott in Pātea, Steffy Mackay and Mark Bellringer in Eltham-Kaponga, Leanne Horo in Te Kūrae Māori ward and Tuteri Rangihaeata in Te Tai Tonga Māori ward.

A byelection for Te Hāwera will be held in January or February as there were no nominations.