Dear Editor

I have been an avid reader of your informative newspaper since the very first edition, and am pleased to see you have no qualms about printing the truth, especially with our council matters.

Prior to the last council election I was pleased to see so many Independent  candidates, which is what was sorely needed in order to break up the destructive cabal of eight councillors, who always seemed to do everything in their power to block Peter Epov at every turn.
After the votes were counted, at least one member of the cabal was not re elected, but then another apparent cabal of seven, or eight councillors was formed in order to block Epov and Bell at every turn.

What a shame the preference system of voting is still in place, and what a shame several councillors stood under the Liberal banner, which meant they had a good chance of being re elected simply because we live in an area which is controlled by the LNP, and with so many rusted on voters not knowing why they voted for these councillors, except that being Liberal, they must be good candidates.

I am very disappointed there are several so called independents who are not really independents, but the fact that councillors are the ones to vote for Mayor and not the public.
The fact that the Epov team clearly won the highest number of votes meant that the majority of voters were very happy to have this team elected to council, and I am sure most would have voted for Epov as Mayor. We need to have a popularly elected Mayor next time! 

Gary Hayes,

Taree