Bellingen Shire Council mayoral candidate Steve Allan leads voting

Voting has closed and the numbers are being crunched and it looks certain Bellingen will have a new mayor.

Early counts are showing strong support for a new mayoral candidate for Bellingen Shire Council.

Current Greens Mayor Dominic King was running for another term with the support of Deputy Mayor Jennie Fenton.

With first preference votes counted into the night on Saturday, new candidate Steve Allan from Urunga is looking likely to become the new mayor.

Steve Allan on the campaign trail. Picture: Facebook

A total of 6850 primary votes have been counted and Mr Allan has claimed 4049 of those votes (59.11 per cent).

A total of 10,286 residential and non-residential electors were enrolled in the area on October 25.

He leads the team known as Waterfall Way Independents.

Current Bellingen councillor Steve Klipin and his wife Lisa. Picture: Janine Watson

Current mayor Mr King had received 1972 (28.79 per cent) of first preference votes counted so far followed by Labor’s Andrew Woodward on 829 (12.10 per cent).

Ellie Tree, who was third on Mr Allan’s ticket, was at the Bellingen Anglican Church Hall polling booth on Saturday afternoon and she was confident of being elected to Bellingen Shire Council.

The 28-year-old youth worker wanted to see “action on the plans” citing overdue roadworks around the shire.

On Sunday morning Ms Tree said team supporters, who gathered at the Urunga Golf Club on Saturday night, were buoyed early on as the tally was updated.

“We were quietly confident as we were ahead each time the tally was updated,” Ms Tree said.

“We didn’t want to call it but by 9pm everybody else was calling it.”

Mr Allan is a pharmacist in Urunga and has been the president of the Urunga Mylestom Chamber of Commerce for 18 years.

Labor mayoral candidate Andrew Woodward answers questions from local doctor Kelly Hamill.

Also at the polling booth on Saturday was sitting councillor Steve Klipin who was running on a platform of continuity with so many new faces vying for election.

Another new face in the mayoral race was Labor’s Andrew Woodward.

He ran for election for Cowper in the 2019 federal election.