In a hard fought out election with at times spiteful accusations that made the national headlines, Labor lost two seats.
A range of issues were raised including cost of living, rising development of new homes without appropriate infrastructure, and allegations of the viability sale of the major Council premises in Blacktown CBD to Walker Corporation and the replacement costs for the new building and what will future rate increases look like.
In summary across the Wards:
Ward 1:
Re-elected councillors were Moninder Singh (Labor) and Jess Diaz (Liberal) with Allan Green (Liberal) who switched from Ward 3 to Ward 1.
Ward2:
Cr Julie Griffiths (Labor) was re-elected and will be joined by two new councillors Mohit Kumar (Liberal) and Damien Atkins (Greens).
Ward 3:
Cr Susai Benjamin (Labor) was re-elected, with Cr Carol Israel (Labor, previously Ward 4) with new Liberal councillor Pradeep Pathi.
Ward 4:
Cr Bob Fitzgerald (Labor) and Peter Camilleri (Liberal) were re-elected with new Councillor Dorothy Del Villar (Labor).
Ward 5:
Labor Mayor Brad Bunting was re-elected and will be joined by two new councillors Jugandeep Singh (Liberal) and Talia Amituanai (Labor).
Council bids farewell to councillors who did not contest including Deputy Mayor Chris Quilkey, Michael Stubley, Kushpinder Kaur, Kathie Collins, Livingston Chettipally and Tony Bleasdale who died recently in office.
Council meetings are set to get exciting given the nature of the debate in the lead up to the elections; 6 new councillors; and finely balanced chamber with Labor having a one seat majority.
Blacktown City Council is the largest populated Council in NSW with over 430,000 residents, an annual budget of over $750M and net assets of approximately $6.4B.
There are significant pressures facing Council with many great opportunities. The people of Blacktown have great expectations from the new leadership team and wish them the best.
