Upper Yarra
7 Tuesday, 1 November, 2016
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Mail Covering the Upper Yarra Region of the Yarra Ranges Shire
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Old and the new By Jesse Graham SIX of the last term’s Yarra Ranges councillors have been re-elected to their posts and three new faces will join the council, with the Victorian Electoral Commission officially calling the race. The winners of the council election were announced on the VEC’s website over the weekend, before VEC returning officer Peter Williams made the official announcement at Lilydale’s council chambers on Monday, 31 October. The results will see three new faces around the council table, with formercouncillor and mayor Tim Heenan unseating Billanook Ward’s Maria McCarthy with a 742 vote margin after preferences. Former-councillor Richard Higgins will be the new councillor for Chirnside Ward, beating incumbent Andrew Witlox by 1002 votes, while Tony Stevenson has been declared the winner of Chandler Ward with a lead of more than 3500 votes over the next candidate. Meanwhile, Streeton Ward councillor Noel Cliff, Walling Ward councillor Len Cox, O’Shannassy Ward councillor Jim Child, Ryrie Ward councillor Fiona McAllister, Lyster Ward councillor Mike Clarke and Melba Ward’s Terry Avery, were all re-elected. Cr McAllister, who won her ward with 83.45 per cent of the vote, achieved an absolute majority of the vote by Thursday 27 October, two days before the count was finished. She said she was “very humbled” by the result. “I suppose, for me, it’s a confirmation that the things that we’ve been working, or I’ve been working on, at council are the right things, and certainly we’ll keep checking in with the community and making sure that I’m taking the right stand on the right issues,” she said. Cr McAllister said this year’s election was “very different” to the 2012 elections, where she was one of 12
Yarra Ranges councillors Mike Clarke, Tony Stevenson, Fiona McAllister, Jim Child, Len Cox, Tim Heenan, Richard Higgins and Noel Cliff. 161295 Picture: JESSE GRAHAM candidates for the ward - this year, it was a two candidate race. “When you’re one of two, versus one of 12, it’s a very different thing,” she said. “When you’re the standing councillor running again, you have a profile in the community and people know what you will and won’t do - it’s an easier thing for the community to know whether to vote for you or against you.” She said planning reform, the formation of the Yarra Valley Trail and the Yarra Ranges Council’s Lilydale
office redevelopment would be major issues for the council in the coming four years, and that the dynamic of the council would shift with the three new councillors. “The moment you change a group of people that work together, with one change, that already changes the dynamic,” Cr McAllister said. In his victory speech at the council chambers, Cr Child said he was “really proud and honoured” to be part of the new council. “It’ll be a pro-active council,” he
said. “There’ll be a lot of differences of opinion there, but it’ll be pro-active and we’ll get the job done,” he said. In a concession speech, O’Shannassy candidate Chelsea McNab thanked her supporters and wished Cr Child well for his term in council. “I appreciate that I could come to you when I was having a bit of a challenging time,” she said. “I feel like the campaign, for me, felt successful in a way, because there was a few conversations I wanted to
raise that did get raised. “Despite it being hard, I enjoyed the time and wish you all the best.” Lyster Ward’s Mike Clarke was the second councillor to achieve an absolute majority, and said on Friday 28 October that major issues in his ward would be road maintenance and sealing, customer service and improving public transport services. For the full results from the election, visit mailcommunity.com.au
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