Gunnedah Shire Council: Jamie Chaffey re-elected as mayor, Rob Hooke re-elected as deputy mayor at first meeting

Meanwhile, councillor Robert Hooke will return as deputy mayor, after he was voted in by his fellow councillors through ordinary ballot.

The deputy position was hotly contested, with councillors Colleen Fuller, Rob Hooke, and Ann Luke all nominating.

Counillor Luke received the lowest vote and was excluded, before the vote was cast again and Cr Hooke received the majority.

After a brief break to receive congratulations from fellow colleagues, Cr Chaffey said he was excited for what lies ahead.

"I'm very humbled to have your support to continue on in the mayoral position that I've held since 2016 and now will until September 2023," he said.

"As a group of elected members, we've got a big responsibility ahead of ourselves.

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"There is an expectation from our community that we will have strong and effective representation of the collective interests of the community.

"We can never lose sight of that. We have a strong list of projects that we have funding for that we'll continue to go on and deliver in the short term.

"But there are things that we don't know that we will face in this next term, things like COVID, that we will need to react to."

Cr Chaffey and Hooke will serve their roles for the term ending in September 2023.

The extraordinary meeting was the first for the newly elected Gunnedah Shire Council, with the nine councillors kicking off proceedings by taking their oaths.

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