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From Facebook.comA local environment advocate and frequent political candidate will be barred from running in the next municipal contest.

Ben West failed to file his campaign financing disclosure statement for the 2008 municipal elections, in which he came within 10 votes from becoming director of the anomalous Electoral Area A.

Under the Local Government Act, that means West is automatically disqualified from running in the next municipal election, which takes place in 2011.

West said he made a mistake when filing his statement - faxing it in on the last day without realizing he needed to hand it over in person.

"It should have been obvious to me," said West, who won't protest the decision.

"I don't fault them from following the law. I had every ability to do it properly and it was just an unfortunate mistake."

For the record, West says he spent about $3,500 on his campaign in the odd electoral area, which is made up of a stretch of unrelated Lower Mainland areas, including the UBC Endowment Lands.

Rather than forming a municipal government, the Electoral Area A director gets a seat on the massive Metro Vancouver regional board.

After years in student politics, West has run in virtually every federal, provincial or municipal election in the region since 2005.

He ran for the mayor's seat in Vancouver that year, finishing well back, but in front of anyone not named Sullivan or Green.

Either way, West says he was unlikely to run in 2011.

"I think the work I'm doing now fits into my skill set," said West, who is the healthy communities campaigner with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and is also chairperson of the Green Party of Vancouver.