FORMER deputy mayor Paul Le Mottee has announced his candidacy for Mayor of Port Stephens.

Mr Le Mottee was first elected to Council in 2012, however did not contest the 2021 local government election due to an issue with his nomination.

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In a statement to media last week, Mr Le Mottee cited his main objective for running for Mayor was to seek solutions to the housing crisis in Port Stephens, describing council as “heavily contributing” to the issue.

Mr Le Mottee has also come out strongly against party politics in local government.

“Having a council with councillors endorsed by a political party results in councils being controlled by Sydney or Canberra,” he said.

“To the best of my knowledge, no Labor councillor, nor the State Labor Member, nor the Federal Labor member, have spoken in favour of the wind farm off Port Stephens, so it stands to reason they are not in favour of them, but not one of them has spoken out against them so it’s fairly obvious they are being gagged by the Labor machine in Sydney and Canberra.”

Le Mottee said council should be “a government of the people of Port Stephens, by the people of Port Stephens, and for the people of Port Stephens”.

“Local government should be free to criticise any state or federal government that seeks to damage or destroy the very fabric of the local government area,” he said.

Le Mottee runs a surveying, town planning and civil engineering business; serves as a Justice of the Peace; is the Immediate past President of the Hunter Chapter of the Housing Industry Australia (HIA); and sits on the board of the Association of Australian Certifiers.

Port Stephens residents will vote for their next mayor and councillors on September 14.