When counting was suspended on Saturday night it appeared there were two candidates already assured of a spot on the new council, four looking very likely and a group of five or six likely to battle it out for the final spots.

Ben Fry and Robert Taylor have been rewarded for their particularly strong campaigning and will be sitting in the top two spots when counting resumes on Monday.

Both have vote counts well in excess of the ever-changing quota figure and both will be new faces in the chamber when council meets for the first time later this month.

There also remains the possibility that one or both could get their number two elected - Kirralee Burke in the case of Mr Fry and Andrew Smith in the case of Mr Taylor - but we are still a long way from finalising those positions.

Mayor Ian North appears to have secured another term while incumbents Graeme Hanger and Jess Jennings are also very well positioned.

Marg Hogan should be a new face on the council after also running an excellent campaign focused on positive change and she was sitting comfortably in fourth position at the close of counting on Saturday.

Beyond that, though, things get significantly more murky.

Apart from Ms Burke and Mr Smith, also in the running for the last three spots are John Fry, Warren Aubin, Nick Packham and possibly Alex Christian, but only if he secures an extraordinary preference flow.

That all points to at least four and possibly five new faces in the chamber and, following the term of council we have just endured, that is not a bad thing.

The new council will still have the experience of councillors such as Ian North and Jess Jennings but an injection of new ideas and a new way of doing things will also be a benefit.

We also hope the next term of council can avoid the unseemly personal clashes we've seen in recent years. We want to see councillors debate differences of opinion but no one wins when those debates descend into slanging matches.

It may still take a couple of weeks for the final make-up of council to be determined but we wish every successful candidate all the best.