Betts faces fight to retain mayoralty after voters turn on Liberals

Voter backlash over mergers and Bondi Pavilion looks set to strip Liberal Party of outright control of Waverley Council.

Waverley Mayor Sally Betts waits for voters at Rose Bay Secondary College in Sydney. Pic: AAP Image/Daniel Munoz

THE Liberal Party looks set to lose control of Waverley Council after a voter backlash over the State Government’s failed merger plans and the controversial Bondi Pavilion upgrade.

Mayor Sally Betts, who announced last week she had stage two cancer in both breasts, will be returned in Hunter ward but may face a struggle to hold onto the mayoralty.

The Liberals seem likely to lose two of the seven seats they previously held on the 12-member council with Labor ​claiming to have gained ground. Labor Councillor John Wakefield​ said on Saturday night he was “very excited” by the results. If confirmed after preferences they could open the way for a Labor-Greens alliance to control council.

Waverley Mayor Sally Betts waits talks to voters at Rose Bay Secondary College.

“It’s heading towards five Liberals, four Labor and three Greens,” Cr Wakefield told the Wentworth Courier.

“Of those, 11 are definite. The Liberal vote is down everywhere,” he said.

Cr Betts copped flak during the last term for her support of a proposed merger with neighbouring Woollahra and Randwick council which was only halted after Woollahra launched a High Court challenge. The plans to revamp heritage-listed Bondi Pavilion have also upset a cohort of locals.

The Liberals are likely win two of the three seats in Hunter with the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies’ Will Nemesh joining Cr Betts on council.

Cr Wakefield said the third would go down to the wire between independent councillor Miriam Guttman-Jones or Labor’s Steven Lewis.

On the campaign trail.

Cr Betts did not wish to comment on the election on Saturday night but earlier, touring polling booths, the 72-year-old was well received by the majority of residents who wished her luck.

“I could never let my team down,” she told Wentworth Courier greeting voters at the Rose Bay Secondary College booth in a bright blue Liberal shirt.

“Some people have criticised the fact that I admitted I had (cancer). I’m going to hospital on Friday, I have an operation then I’ll have some radiation and hopefully it will be over.

“Then I’ll be just another woman who has survived and that gives other women confidence.”

Anti-Liberal activists criticised Cr Betts on social media.

Bondi Pavilion.

“Two days before the Waverley election, colourful Liberal mayor Sally Betts declares to the world that she has breast cancer,” a Facebook post said.

“Immediate sympathy, of course, but with Betts, this comes matched with immediate suspicion: is she going for the sympathy vote? Poor Sally.”

Cr Betts, who has been mayor since 2012, was among thirty-seven candidates standing for Waverley Council’s four wards today.

Final results will not be known for a few days as distribution of preferences will not happen until Tuesday to ensure that all postal votes are included.

Check the latest results: http://elections.nsw.gov.au/waverley