Wednesday 9 August 2017

The race for Mayor of Maitland is officially on

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Local council elections are just one month away and Maitland has officially chosen their candidates for Mayor.

Among the candidates is John Brown for the Greens, Loretta Baker for Country Labor, Bob Geoghegan for Liberal and three independents Brian Burke, Ken Wethered and Phillip Penfold.

Mayoral candidate Phillip Penfold says he's confident, but there is some great competition.

"We've got six good people put their hand up to speak to be that civic leader for Maitland. I'm not taking this for granted, but my team of candidates and my supporters are going to work very hard over the next month to give our policies, give our positions and give people are fair choice moving forward."

Liberal are promising they'll get back to basics in Maitland and their Mayoral candidate Bob Geoghegan says he'll focus on rates, roads and rubbish.

"Council always has to focus on the main functions of council which are roads, rates and rubbish with the roads in Maitland there are certainly issues with roads, with regards to rates I think we have to always be very conscious of keeping the cost of living down particularly in this era of high electricity prices."

With current Mayor Peter Blackmore retiring from the top job at the upcoming election, the job is anybody's game.