Five fresh faces win city council terms

Bunbury electors have voted in five fresh councillors to represent them in an election which again saw voter numbers slump.

Saturday’s Bunbury City Council election saw 16 candidates battle it out for the six positions and with the retirement of councillors Murray Cook, Brendan Kelly and Monique Warnock, a new-look council was inevitable.

The council will now be back to full strength after finally replacing Joel McGuinness who retired in February last year for a career move to Victoria.

Cr Betty McCleary is the only returning councillor of the six that were up for re-election after Cr Sam Morris was unsuccessful in his bid to be re-elected.

Former Bunbury councillor Wendy Giles will return, while Amanda Yip, Karen Turner, Kris Plumb and Cheryl Kozisek make up the successful candidates.

The election saw the lowest return rate in the past four years with just 28.55 per cent of ballots returned – equating to 6456 of the 22,750 election packages posted out.

The 2017 election saw 35.1 per cent returned while 2015 attracted 29.16 per cent.

Despite the low figures, Mayor Gary Brennan said the council was looking forward to working with its new members moving forward.

In other areas, Dardanup deputy shire president Cr Peter Robinson secured his seat along with Cr Patricia Perks while renominating Cr James Lee was unsuccessful instead making way for newcomers Stacey Gillespie and Mark Hutchinson.

In Capel, newly-elected councillors Kaara Andrew, Kieran Noonan, Rosina Mogg and Dave Clews will all serve four year terms alongside the re-elected Cr Sebastian Schiano with shire deputy president Brian Hearne along with Barry Bell, Jennifer Scott and Peter McCleery all missing out.

Harvey shire councillors Tania Jackson, Paul Beech, Francis Burgoyne, Amanda Lovitt and Craig Carbone were re-elected and first-time nominees Robyn Coleman and John Bromham also won seats.