Feilding has missed out on a finalist spot in this year's Keep New Zealand Beautiful awards because the application was not handed in on time.

The finalists for this year's awards, which include best city and best town, have been announced but Feilding was left off the list due to a "communication breakdown".

The town has won the award for best town in New Zealand 14 times and was hoping to be in the running for four more awards this year.

Keep Feilding Beautiful chairperson Del Gibb said she was never given a closure date for the application. "I put it down to the inefficiencies of the Auckland office," she said. "We asked for some more information to be sent to us weeks ago and we received it on the 18th of October and we were later told the cut-off for applications was on the 15th of October." She said the group had worked hard to get the applications ready. "We know we have an extremely good 12-month calendar of work, and I wonder if others are in the same position as us and weren't told. Then again, it wouldn't hurt for someone else to win."

When Mrs Gibb took the matter up with the head office, she was told she could have a day to get the application in. "I said, `A day! That's not long enough to get applications done'. It's disappointing."

Feilding Promotion manager Helen Worboys said it was very disappointing for the town.

"We were all fired up and ready to go with our applications," she said. "We all got together three or four months ago to pull everything together and there were no deadlines on any of the documents we'd received. I certainly didn't receive any emails about the cut-off date."

Keep New Zealand Beautiful national programmes manager Mary Brown said all members were notified at a conference earlier this year and everyone was emailed the deadline.

"They probably didn't check their emails in time," she said. "It's quite unfortunate for Feilding but that's not to say we've done anything malicious or [are] trying to keep them out of the competition."

Mrs Worboys said it sounded like there had been a communication breakdown between Keep Feilding Beautiful and the Keep New Zealand Beautiful groups. "It's unfortunate and we will be following it up, but it's all too late now." She said the group had wanted to apply for the best community initiative award for the town's vigil service held for the spate of tragic events.