Manly Council was a local government area on the northern beaches region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, first incorporated in 1877. On 12 May 2016, the Minister for Local Government announced that Manly Council would be subsumed into the newly formed Northern Beaches Council. The last mayor of Manly Council was Cr. Jean Hay , a member of the Liberal Party. Suburbs in the local government area Balgowlah Balgowlah Heights Clontarf Fairlight Manly Seaforth History Manly was first incorporated on 6 January 1877 as the Municipal District of Manly, and met for the first time on 15 February 1877, when the first mayor was elected, Thomas Rowe. The council first met in temporary premises including the original Ivanhoe Hotel in Ivanhoe Park, until 1909, and from then on Llangollen, the former mansion of William Howard Rolfe at the end of the Corso, served as the new council chambers. There were no wards until October 1890 when the council petitioned to be divided into three wards, which was proclaimed in December 1890: The Steyne Ward to the north, Fairlight Ward to the southeast and Wentworth Ward to the east. Manly was the only local government authority on the Northern Beaches until the proclamation of Warringah Shire in 1906, with the Burnt Bridge Creek forming the northern boundary with Warringah. From 1906 the council became the Municipality of Manly. In August 1909, the council petitioned for the abolition of wards in favour of one at-large electorate, which was subsequently proclaimed. In 1918, seven of the council's alderman who had accepted free ferry passes from the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company were charged and found guilty by a magistrate of contravening the Local Government Act and disqualified to act as aldermen. As the council only had a total of nine alderman, there was a period when the council did not have quorum and therefore did not function. The convictions were overturned on appeal. In April 1927, Alderman Alfred Reid passed through a motion to petition the NSW Government for upgrading Manly to City status. This petition was rejected by Minister for Local Government Eric Spooner in May 1938, citing that Manly did not fulfill the requirements of such a status. In response, Mayor Aubrey Hanson-Norman upheld Manly's arguments for such a petition: "We have a population of about 10,000 and the revenue including the electricity undertaking is £180,000 [...] Geographically too,