LOGAN HOWLETT is fuming that council mergers are forcing him to vacate his North Lake home of 32 years just so he can remain Cockburn mayor.

Mayors must reside in the municipality they preside over and North Lake is shifting from Cockburn to Melville under Colin Barnett’s troubled amalgamations.

Mr Howlett has bought and moved into a home in Munster, which remains in the borders of the proposed Cockburn-Kwinana super council, dubbed “City of Jervoise Bay”.

Mr Howlett is upset he’s had to leave his family home, where his children grew up and his grandchildren played.

“We will stay in this interim house until the final boundaries have been set and then move again,” he says, glumly.

“We still own the home in North Lake, but we wouldn’t be able to live there any more because of the regulations.

“It’s been quite upsetting—there’s a lot of memories tied up in that house.”

He wouldn’t say how much the ordeal is costing him.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK