New face of Dardanup with Ellen Lilly elected for the first time

The Shire of Dardanup will welcome a new councillor this week after first-time candidate Ellen Lilly rocked the vote to earn herself a seat on the council. The councillor-elect polled a total of 1707 votes during Saturday’s election, just 42 votes behind incumbent Shire president Mick Bennett, who retains his seat with 1749 votes. Ms Lilly said she was “honoured and privileged” to have earned the trust of the shire’s residents. “It is very exciting and now it is time for me to do what I said I would do which was to act on council with transparency, with honesty and with courage,” she said. “I really look forward to being able to do that for the Shire of Dardanup. “I’m very honoured and privileged to think the people of the Shire of Dardanup have entrusted their vote in me to do as I’ve said I wanted to do.” Ms Lilly said she hoped to use her new-found platform on the council to focus on the safety and security of communities for all ages. “I want to make sure we can live in the community with dignity and be able to develop and grow our potential,” she said. “Certainly our economic prosperity is very important because that is part of being able to feel safe and secure in our community and of course we also need very sensible economic and environmental decisions made in the community. “We need to be very sound in the way we make these decisions that our environment is here for a long time. “We know there are lots of issues relating to climate change and these issues need to be brought forth to the frontline where people are making decisions in council.” Incumbent councillors Janice Dow, Tyrrell Gardiner and Luke Davies retained their seats, with 1528, 1464 and 1429 votes respectively. Ms Lilly’s election to the council will also see the Shire of Dardanup bid farewell to long-standing councillor Carmel Boyce who just missed out on retaining her seat with 1226 votes. After she conceded defeat, Cr Bennett thanked Ms Boyce for her service, having served on the council together for a number of years. “On behalf of all the councillors you have worked with over the years, I thank you on behalf of the community for the effort you’ve put in,” he said. “You look at the other side of the envelope which made us take that into account and I’ve appreciated you bringing a different perspective.” Others to miss out on a seat were long-time candidate Annette Webster and Frank Faulkner. A special council meeting will be held on Wednesday to have councillors sworn in and determine who will be Shire president and deputy.