Results of the Armidale Dumaresq, Narrabri and Inverell shire council elections were declared at the weekend.
RESULTS of the Armidale Dumaresq, Narrabri and Inverell shire council elections were declared at the weekend.
Armidale's councillor line-up includes five new faces, two of whom are female, and five incumbent councillors.
Old hands Jim Maher, Herman Beyersdorf, Rob Richardson, Colin Gadd and Christopher Halligan will be joined by necomers Margaret O'Connor, Peter O'Donohue, Andrew Murat, Laurie Bishop and Jenny Bailey.
The election in Armidale was one of the more political in the north, with 31 candidates, many of whom nominated their political affiliations.
The independent candidates, listed as ungrouped on the ballot paper, took the lion's share of the vote (almost 40 per cent), followed by Liberal (15 per cent) and the Greens (14 per cent).
Group F, led by Cr Beyersdorf and which was Labor, although was not named as such, garnered 11 per cent, trailed by Group B independents with 9 per cent and two other unaffiliated groupings on 5 per cent.
Each of the three major parties only managed to get up one of their candidates.
Former councillor Dorothy Robinson, who was second on the Greens ticket, was not returned.
Interestingly though, incoming councillor Jenny Bailey called for a full audit of the council when she takes up her new position and pledged to resign her membership of the National Party, to ensure her independence at the council.
She said looking at the council's fiscal situation should be a priority.
"I'm not sure exactly what the financial situation of the council is, and until I know that I don't even know how we move forward. I think we've got to be very mindful that we shouldn't operate in a deficit situation, if we can avoid it," she said.
"I'd like to see a full audit presented to us, to let us know of the full financial situation of the council. After which we can move ahead with our policies for the future."
Six of Narrabri shire's incumbent councillors Conrad Bolton, Robyn Faber, Bevan O'Regan, Ron Lowder, Les Knox and Cathy Redding will return to the chambers following the result of votes there.
They will be joined by newcomers Catherine Collyer, Ken Flower, Maxine Booby, Ian Duffey, Ian Scilley and Lloyd Finlay.
Inverell will retain eight of its incumbents, with the only change being newcomer Phillip Girle.
