Story by Echonetdaily‘s Chris Dobney
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Byron Shire Council’s re-elected Greens mayor Simon Richardson says he will use the progressives’ thumping new majority to recall the controversial Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP), pushed through in the dying days of the previous conservative-dominated council.
Cr Richardson estimates all but one or two of the new guard will be progressives.
Byron councillor Alan Hunter is so far the only conservative guaranteed a spot on the new council.
Based on first preferences (so far the only ones counted) the Greens are likely to win four seats, Country Labor two and Our Sustainable Future one on the nine-seat council.
National Party-aligned Cr Alan Hunter is so far the only conservative guaranteed a berth.
This would leave just one seat to be decided between real estate agent and Byron Bay Chamber of Commerce president Gail Fuller, Byron Residents Group president Cate Coorey and renegade former Greens councillor Rose Wanchap.
None of the three has anything approaching a quota in their own right, and all are within a handful of votes of each other, so the final result on this seat will go down to preference flows.