With many local councils juggling the elections timetable owing to COVID-19 restrictions, last night the Tweed Shire elected their Deputy Mayor.
Under NSW Local Government legislation, the position of mayor and deputy mayor are put to the ballot at the expiry of each term – a period of two years for the position of Mayor and one year for the role of Deputy Mayor. The civic offices of all mayors elected by councillors will expire on election day on 4 December 2021.
Councillor Reece Byrnes has been re-elected ‘for what is probably the shortest term of deputy Mayor up until the December elections’ said Tony Green, General Manager of Tweed Shire.
Councillor Byrnes was elected with five votes – supported by Councillors Cherry, Cooper, Milne, and Owen. Councillor Allsop who was also running for the position was supported by Councillor Polglase.
Deputy Mayor Byrnes will work alongside Councillor Chris Cherry, Mayor of Tweed Shire, who will remain in her position until the next election, in December 2021.
Honoured to continue to serve the community
Before thanking his fellow Councillors for their support, Councillor Byrnes said he was honoured to continue to serve the community in this role and work to for and fight for them in what is one of the hardest times the Tweed has ever faced.
‘The Tweed and our community are always my inspiration. I was born here, and it’s the greatest honour to serve our community and the area.
Cr Byrnes said that in his role as Deputy Mayor he has witnessed such resilience and strength in the community, as so many continue to face the toughest of times during this global pandemic. ‘The biggest challenge for our community remains the fact that we are unprotected from the COVID disaster coming out of Sydney.
Our community has been forgotten
‘The sad fact is that our community has been forgotten by the Liberal Nationals in Government at a State and Federal level.
‘I will continue to call on the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to close the loopholes letting people travel from Sydney and putting our community and lives at risk.
‘As Deputy Mayor, I will keep fighting for our community to get our ring of steel to protect our families, our jobs and our way of life here in the Tweed.’
Councillor Byrnes was previously Deputy Mayor from September 2017 to September 2018. He repeated this post from September 2020 to September 2021.
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