Lismore 'progressives' forge ahead

LISMORE City Council looks set to have as many as seven progressive councillors with the conservative side reduced by one to a minority of four.

Lismore Deputy Mayor Isaac Smith said once preferences were distributed today, it was likely his group led by returned Mayor Jenny Dowell would pick up two extra seats.

LISMORE City Council looks set to have as many as seven progressive councillors with the conservative side reduced by one to a minority of four.

Lismore Deputy Mayor Isaac Smith said once preferences were distributed today, it was likely his group led by returned Mayor Jenny Dowell would pick up two extra seats: human resource manager Glenys Ritchie and farmer Kevin Bell.

"It's a literally unbelievable turnaround (from eight years ago)," Cr Smith said. "People were saying if we were lucky we may get a third person on, but now it's looking likely we will get a fourth."

Greens candidate Vanessa Ekins won enough votes to give her a seat without going to preferences, while it is considered Our Sustainable Future candidate Simon Clough, who experienced a small swing against him, will nonetheless win a spot once Green preferences flow to him.

Neil Marks was the only conservative to win his a seat in his own right, with preferences likely to see Group F's Graeme Meineke returned along with the Love of Lismore's Gianperro Battista.

The fourth conservative spot is likely to be fought out on preferences between Kel Graham (Team Marks), Greg Bennett (Rural Ratepayers) and Mathew Scheibel (New Generations).

Summary of First Preference Votes

A Group Votes GNS 2,567 1.25 11.34%
B Group Votes  870 0.42 3.84%
C Group Votes OSF 1,238 0.60 5.47%
D Group Votes CL 7,904 3.84 34.93%
E Group Votes  1,485 0.72 6.56%
F Group Votes  1,765 0.86 7.80%
G Group Votes  1,591 0.77 7.03%
H Group Votes  3,492 1.70 15.43%
I Group Votes  1,343 0.65 5.93%
J Group Votes  298 0.14 1.32%
Ungrouped  78 0.04 0.34%
 

Total Formal Votes Counted 22,631  
Total Informal/Other Votes 2,217  
Progressive Total Ordinary Votes 24,848  
 

Originally published as Lismore 'progressives' forge ahead