Was it divine intervention or western democracy that changed the fate of a former country church on the Northern Rivers last week?
‘I didn’t realise we had elections in Ballina Shire,’ Echo reader Peter Hatfield commented recently, ‘I thought David Wright was divinely appointed for life, if not beyond’.
David Wright has been mayor of Ballina Shire for the past eleven years and has held a seat on the council for the past seventeen so it’s fair to say his time has been epic in local government terms.
But Mr Hatfield’s joke could also be a subtle reference to the councillor’s famous – at least locally – flamboyancy.