Mannoun on Thursday took to Facebook to address the claims and defend the project,insisting that he had provided all candidates who asked him with a list of projects that he wanted funding for.
“Tina was the former deputy mayor (and is my wife) and knows the issues well. Mel Gibbons was the local MP and her husband was the mayor of Sutherland Shire (which Holsworthy covers) and no conflict was raised then,” he wrote.
Gibbons is the former member for Holsworthy but was dislodged from the seat when Ayyad won preselection. Gibbons,who is now running as the Liberal candidate for Kiama,replied to Mannoun’s post asking to “leave me out of this please.”
“I believe people didn’t raise a conflict because we were not married or living together,but were only seeing each other back then,” Gibbons replied in a comment on Mannoun’s mayoral Facebook page.
Gibbons also took issue with comments he had made regarding applications for funding the pool project while she was the local member.
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Her reply was subsequently deleted from Mannoun’s page,before Gibbons returned serve in a further comment.
“Disappointed to see you’ve deleted my comment Ned. I’ve made a[point of never deleting the points of view of others. This is especially disappointing when I’m actually mentioned in your post – I should have the right to publicly respond.”
Mannoun’s post about the sporting facility also attracted a number of comments from local constituents praising the promise as a win for the local community.
The large Liverpool council area covers the seats of Holsworthy,Liverpool,Leppington and Badgerys Creek.