‘Not making a big deal’: Cr Amos on his election hopes

A Facebook forum for the elections which appears to favour one candidate turned nasty recently with current Councillors branded as arrogant for not declaring their intentions.

Councillors in their Castle St chambers .

With several new candidates standing up for election to Coffs Harbour City Council in September, attention is turning to current Councillors and their intentions.

A Facebook forum for the elections which appears to favour one candidate turned nasty recently with current Councillors, with the exception of Tegan Swan who has said she would run, criticised for not yet declaring their intentions.

Cr Sally Townley described the post as ‘vicious, delusional, rude and odious’. It has since been removed.

As the election draws near The Advocate is speaking with Councillors to see what their plans are.

When Cr Paul Amos was asked if he would run again, he had this to say:

“I am – unless something unforeseen happens. I’m just not making a big deal about it.”

And would he be running for mayor?

“That would be very much the obvious option.”

Last week Mayor Denise Knight said she has not decided if she will run.

She is likely to make her decision by the end of this month or by early July.

No fair go from Facebook forums

Labor candidate Tony Judge is concerned about two Facebook forums in particular.

“It is obvious that neither the moderator, nor most of the participants, are impartial and it definitely favours one group.

“Coffs Harbour really needs an impartial site where candidates can answer questions, genuinely posed by the community.”

Other mayoral candidates that have come forward so far:

Dean Evers – Mr Evers has worked in the social services sector in Coffs Harbour since 1999. Back then he was with the Department of Community Services (DOCS) but now heads the local charity Hope for the Homeless.

This month, the Boambee resident is hitting up “30 venues in 30 days” in an effort to gather views from a broad cross-section of people from across the local government area.

Jonathan Cassell – Is running on behalf of the Greens. His official team announcement was timed to coincide with Greens MP Cate Faehrmann’s recent visit to the region.

Mr Cassell ran as a Greens candidate for the seat of Coffs Harbour in the 2019 NSW State elections. Joining him on the Greens team are Tim Nott, Natalie Stevens and Maureen Burgess.

Rodger Pryce – Rodger is running as mayoral candidate on the ‘Together, we’ll fix it’ team followed by Nikki Williams, John Lardner and Tammy Mills-Thom in that order.

They would like to see changes made to the Cultural and Civic Space if elected.

Mr Pryce ias also keen to address the region’s housing crisis saying the price of residential land has gone up by 50 per cent in four years.

“And there are large tracts of land zoned residential that have been sitting there for 30 years still not developed.”