Manly is more or less separated from other parts of the metropolitan area." After a long and protracted debate over the construction of a purpose-built town hall, in February 1937 the old Town Hall had been demolished and a Neo-Georgian revival Town Hall by Samuel Reginald Maisey of the prominent local firm Trenchard Smith & Maisey, which served as the seat of the council until 2016. From 1951 to 1980, the Mackellar County Council operated on the Northern Beaches as an electricity and gas supplier and retailer as a joint operation of Manly Municipal Council and Warringah Shire Council. The council became known as Manly Council on 1 July 1993 following the enactment of the Local Government Act, 1993 which also stipulated that the term 'Town Clerk' be replaced with 'General Manager' and 'Alderman' be replaced by 'Councillor'. 2016 amalgamation proposal A 2015 review of local government boundaries by the NSW Government Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended that the Manly Council merge with adjoining councils. The government considered two proposals. The first proposed a merger of Manly and Mosman Councils and parts of Warringah Council to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 153,000. The alternative, proposed by Warringah Council on 23 February 2016, was for an amalgamation of the Pittwater, Manly and Warringah councils, which was proclaimed as the Northern Beaches Council on 12 May 2016. Demographics At the 2011 Census, there were people in the Manly local government area, of these 48.8% were male and 51.2% were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 0.3% of the population. The median age of people in the Manly Council area was 37 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 18.9% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 13.5% of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 48.5% were married and 10.3% were either divorced or separated. Population growth in the Manly Council area between the 2001 Census and the 2006 Census was 1.55% and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 Census, population growth was 7.11%. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same periods, being 5.78% and 8.32% respectively, population growth in the Manly local government area was lower than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Manly Council