Perth Voice Interactive

MICHELLE SUTHERLAND is back at Bayswater council after winning a tight extraordinary election in the north ward.

She previously held the seat from 2013-17, narrowly losing to councillors Stephanie Gray and Filomena Piffaretti at last year’s election.

Earlier this year Cr Brent Fleeton retired early, sparking an extraordinary election.

Low turnout

In her candidate statement, Cr Sutherland said she wanted to stop unnecessary spending of taxpayers’ money, upgrade Morley town centre and improve parks and sporting facilities.

The turnout at the election was pretty low: just 3210 votes were cast out of a potential 11,500.

That’s a 28 per cent turnout, compared to 32 per cent at last year’s full election.

Cr Sutherland won’t be able to relax for long and will face another election in October next year, when Mr Fleeton’s term had been due to finish.

by DAVID BELL