See main article: 2017 New South Wales local elections. The 2017 Central Coast Council election was held on 9 September 2017 to elect 15 councillors to Central Coast Council. The election was held as part of the statewide local government elections in New South Wales, Australia.[1]
This was the first election for the council after it was formed in 2016 from a merger of the City of Gosford and Wyong Shire.
The Labor Party won the most seats out of any party, winning six out of 15.[2]
Central Coast Council covers the entire Central Coast region, which has a population of 327,736 as of 2021. This makes it the third-most-populated LGA in New South Wales, behind only Blacktown and Canterbury-Bankstown.
The council was formed on 12 May 2016 as a "super council" after the state government merged the City of Gosford and Wyong Shire.[3] It is composed of five wards, each electing three councillors, totalling 15 councillors for the entire LGA.
A total of 93 candidates contested the election.[4]
Central Coast NEW Independents endorsed candidates in three wards (Gosford East, Gosford West and Wyong), while Next Generation Independents ran a ticket in one ward (Gosford East).[5] [6]
| Votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57,265 | 30.2 | +7.0 | 6 | 1 | ||||
| 46,751 | 24.7 | −6.5 | 4 | 2 | ||||
| 32,279 | 17.0 | −12.6 | 3 | 3 | ||||
| Central Coast NEW Independents | 19,774 | 10.4 | +10.4 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 14,834 | 7.8 | −1.6 | 0 | 1 | ||||
| 10,986 | 5.8 | −0.8 | 0 | 2 | ||||
| Fighting for the Forgotten North | 4,012 | 2.1 | 0 | |||||
| Next Generation Independents | 2,789 | 1.5 | 0 | |||||
| 544 | 0.3 | +0.3 | 0 | |||||
| Sustainable Development | 407 | 0.2 | +0.2 | 0 | ||||
| Formal votes | 189,641 | 92.3 | ||||||
| Informal votes | 15,893 | 7.7 | ||||||
| Total | 205,534 | 100 | 15 | |||||
| Registered voters / turnout | 250,818 | 75.6 | ||||||