All stories
The front page and the section pages show what is current. This page lists everything we have published, so a story stays findable after it stops being news.
Development
On 22 October the Central Coast Local Planning Panel refused, 4 to 0, a bid to use a newly built NDIS group home at 171 Ocean View Drive, Wamberal, as co-living housing: eight double rooms for up to 16 residents with two tandem car spaces. The building has no occupation certificate and has never been occupied. 78 submissions were received.
Environment
On 22 September Central Coast Council accepted in principle six lots the NSW Government bought under the Coastal Lands Protection Scheme and classified them operational land, which the Act's ban on selling community land does not cover, 8 votes to 7. Officers now say the state expects community land, and that for the Wamberal lots community land can fit Council's adopted strategies. A rescission motion went to the 27 October meeting, and the officers' supplementary report now recommends community land for the five Wamberal lots and a deferred decision on Avoca.
Council money
Central Coast Council voted 9 to 6 on 22 September to add a $985,000 federally funded upgrade of the Gosford City Indoor Sports Stadium to its capital program, on a report that offsets it by cutting $400,000 from the 2026-27 budget for the Toukley Community Facilities redevelopment. An amendment seeking a different offset was lost 7 to 8.
Environment
A council committee voted 7 to 0 on 6 October to recommend the Draft Central Coast Lagoons Coastal Management Program go on public exhibition for at least 28 days. It is not open for comment yet. The draft has 20 actions costed at $4.98 million over 10 years; among the highest scored is a planning proposal to align the lagoons' Coastal Environment Area mapping, now a 500 metre buffer, more closely with their catchments.
Data
ABS figures show 1,225 dwellings approved on the Central Coast in 2024-25 and 1,324 in 2025-26, below the 1,880 a year the NSW target averages. Two-thirds of last year's approvals were in the northern half of the Coast.
Council money
IPART set Central Coast Council's 2027-28 rate peg at 4.3 per cent on 13 October 2026, up from 3.2 per cent this year and exactly the state median. The rise is built from a new 0.46 point cybersecurity adjustment, higher base costs, a population factor that doubles to 0.4, and an election cost deduction in this year's peg that has no line in next year's.
Transport
Central Coast Council’s engagement summary for the Ocean Beach Road and Rawson Road intersection at Woy Woy: 95 of 155 online survey respondents supported the revised concept design to replace the roundabout with traffic lights, 47 opposed and 13 were neutral. None of the 14 business owners or operators who answered supported it. About 45 unrestricted parking spaces would go and about 30 timed spaces be added; construction is expected to start in mid-2027, subject to final design and approvals.
Council
Minutes of Central Coast Council's 22 September 2026 meeting, published 9 October, show the PFAS motion carried 14 to 1 on 29 September after an amendment without its two Mardi Dam clauses was lost 7 to 8. Council's own results: treated water below 0.001 micrograms per litre this quarter; five upstream Ourimbah catchment sites above a guideline value on 5 August.
Environment
Central Coast Council adopted the Tuggerah Lakes Flood Study Review on 25 August 2026. Its modelled 1% AEP lake level, 2.24 m AHD, is closely aligned with the 1994 study's 2.23. Frequent floods model lower and the rarest higher; 6,581 of 34,170 lots in the study area are modelled to be at least partly inundated in a 1% flood; projections could add 0.50 m by 2070.
Transport
Minutes of Central Coast Council's Economic Development Committee, 6 October 2026: the committee endorsed the staged hybrid-delivery model for the airport at Warnervale, 4 votes to 2, after an amendment to defer Gateway 2 until the Porters Creek Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement is finalised was lost 3 to 3 on the chair's casting vote. Two changes to the officers' wording, and no direction recorded on an outside operator.
Council money
A report to Central Coast Council's Infrastructure and Assets Committee of 13 October 2026 puts the recurrent operating impact of the preferred Scenario D for the Leagues Club Park Tidal Terrace at $345,144.61 a year, against about $59,507 spent on the park now. Depreciation adds $157,036.85 a year, and the existing toilets would be written off at $397,764.53.
Council money
A report to Central Coast Council's Environment and Planning Committee of 6 October 2026 puts the council's section 7.11 and 7.12 contribution balances at about $230.49 million at 30 June 2026, excluding internal borrowings. In 2025-26 it spent $6.21 million from them and earned $9.39 million in interest. A draft plan aims to lift annual spending.
Transport
A report to Central Coast Council's Economic Development Committee of 6 October 2026 recommends a staged hybrid model for the airport at Warnervale: keep majority ownership, consider selling part of one development area, lease the rest as demand appears, and decide whether to seek an outside operator. The runway upgrade at the centre of the 2025 plan is not in it.
Environment
The Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel refused all three Wamberal seawall development applications on 18 June 2026. Its reasons start with owners' consent the applicants could not complete, then a wall design the council's coastal engineers said had not been shown to stand. The approval route still open, council's section 68 application to the NSW Reconstruction Authority, can authorise works without any owner's consent.
News
The Senate Select Committee on Intergenerational Housing Inequity tabled its final report on 30 September 2026 with ten unanimous findings and no agreed recommendations. Greens, Labor and Coalition senators then wrote three separate sets, and Labor's first and the Coalition's first are opposite answers on the same Budget tax change.
Council
Central Coast Council's draft Natural Disaster Resilience Strategy was on public exhibition until Tuesday 20 October 2026. It runs to ten priorities and fifty actions, and the risk case it builds is demographic as much as geographic: 22% of the population aged 65 or older, 28% of those living alone, 11,142 active NDIS plans. Three pop-up sessions were scheduled before it closed. The document on exhibition carries May 2025 on its cover.
Council
Councillor John McNamara was elected Mayor of the Central Coast on 29 September 2026, with Councillor Rachel Stanton as Deputy. It was not a spill: the Office of Local Government requires councils that elect their own mayor to hold a mid-term election in September 2026. The agenda sets out the terms, two years for the Mayor and one for the Deputy, and the money: a $118,530 mayoral fee with the Deputy's $10,000 deducted from it.
Council
A notice of motion to the 22 September Ordinary meeting asks NSW agencies to test fish and yabbies in Ourimbah Creek for PFAS, to sample sediment in Mardi Dam, and to advise residents who extract untreated creek water whether to stop during floods. The Chief Executive Officer's response says detections trace to an EPA-licensed site, fall away downstream, and are below detection limits at Council's extraction point, and that NSW Health advice is that treated drinking water remains safe. The minutes are not published, so whether the motion passed is not yet public.
News
The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council now expects the National Housing Accord's 1.2 million homes to be reached in the December quarter of 2030, a quarter later than it said in April. Approvals are up 26 per cent, commencements up 15 and slowing, and a Senate committee on intergenerational housing inequity reports on 30 September.
Community
From Friday 21 August 2026 Lake Haven Library shuts at 2pm on Fridays, for up to six months. Central Coast Council says it is a precautionary response to repeated anti-social behaviour in and around the library precinct, after several years of trying to manage the risk while keeping the doors open.
News
New ABS data to 30 June 2025: Central Coast Council has 81,492 residents aged 65 and over, the most of any council in New South Wales and more than Canterbury-Bankstown or Blacktown. By share it ranks 56th of 128, and it has fallen 42 places since 2001.
Council
The Office of Local Government received 83 complaints about Central Coast Council in 2024-25, up from 48, the first rise since the 256 recorded in 2020-21. Complaints rose across NSW too. What the Central Coast's differ about.
Council money
Central Coast Council's capital works update to the 11 August Infrastructure and Assets Committee records $206,137,936 spent against a forecast phased budget of $237,001,047 at 31 May 2026, 87 per cent against a 90 per cent target, and says end of June is expected to meet it. The same report names international events, supply chain impacts and the May councillor workshop that resolved to create the contingency fund we reported in August.
Council
IPART capped Central Coast Council's rates income at a final peg of 3.2 per cent for 2026-27. We read the adopted Fees and Charges schedule and the one before it, 132 and 136 pages, and matched 684 individual fees across the two years. The median rise is 5.20 per cent, with most of the schedule moving by exactly that. The rate peg does not apply to fees, and this is what that means in practice.
Council money
The adopted Delivery Program names the line item Middle East Conflict - Cost Impacts Contingency, $22 million, 6.3 per cent of the capital works program. It was funded from inside the program by deferring twelve named projects. The plan's own funding split matches those twelve exactly.
Council
Central Coast Council meets on Tuesday 25 August. The agenda published on Friday carries 41 substantive items, including two motions to rescind decisions taken four weeks ago: one on standing committee delegations, one on the Gosford Coming Alive 2040 endorsement.
Community
Central Coast Council reported action by action on the final year of its 2021-2025 disability plan, in the statutory pages of a 300-page annual report. When we wrote this its accessibility page listed progress reports only to December 2023; it has since been rebuilt around the 2026-2030 plan and links no progress reports at all.
Community
Central Coast Council adopted its Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2026-2030 on 26 May, five weeks before the state deadline. We read all 52 actions, the local data behind them, and what the plan will and will not tell you in four years.
Council
The Central Coast Local Planning Panel met online on Thursday 20 August to decide three development applications: a dual occupancy at Woy Woy, alterations and a pool at Avoca Beach, and a two-lot subdivision at Ettalong Beach. The agenda lists a clause 4.6 variation document against every one of them. It has been opened 33 times.
Council
Council opened the new Blue Lagoon Beach stairs on 14 August. We downloaded three years of Crown Reserves Improvement Fund records and added up every grant that landed in the Central Coast LGA: $2,017,745 across eight projects, and a take that swings from 5.5 per cent of the state pool to 0.3 per cent and back to 9.5 per cent.
Council
Central Coast Council's draft Regulatory Priorities Statement 2026-29 names five compliance priorities a year for three years: unhealthy land and Gosford CBD parking this year, unauthorised coastal works next, illegal dumping in 2028-29. Submissions closed Friday 21 August 2026.
Council
Central Coast Council's adopted Long Term Financial Plan 2026-27 to 2035-36 names a preferred scenario for the first time, and it assumes the council will seek a permanent special rate variation of $31 million from 2031-32 to replace the temporary one that expires. Without it, the council's own base case has unrestricted cash at minus $405 million by 2035-36.
Development
Central Coast Council's Accelerated Development Application pathway is entered through a free pre-lodgement review called Accelerated Lodgement Ready. The council's own page says you have one opportunity to be accepted, and an application short of the minimum documentation goes back to the standard pathway. Review letter in 5 to 10 days, determination generally 10 to 25 days after lodgement.
Council
Central Coast Council asked a deliberative panel and 189 survey respondents to rank six water and sewer service values. The two rankings are identical except for one swap: the broad survey put affordability second and reliability third, the panel the other way round. On sewer, both groups agreed and put reliability above cost. The engagement feeds Council's submissions to IPART.
Growth + transport
Central Coast Council has secured $183,231 to progress a Special Entertainment Precinct in Gosford, running from the University of Newcastle building to Drifters Wharf. A precinct lets a council set its own sound conditions and trading hours, overriding standard development consent and licence conditions. More than 800 people gave early feedback and 89 per cent backed a trial.
Council
At the extraordinary meeting on 28 July Central Coast Council appointed Jamie Loader as Acting Chief Executive Officer and set up a seven-member recruitment panel with delegated authority: six councillors and one independent, Kath Roach of SINC Solutions. The permanent appointment still needs a full council resolution.
Council
David Farmer became Central Coast Council's chief executive in April 2021 with the council under administration after its financial collapse. He retires on 2 September, and an extraordinary meeting on 28 July 2026 appointed an internal acting CEO and began recruiting a permanent one. He leaves a council that rebuilt its finances and is now re-tooling to chase major projects, which is what makes the timing matter.
Development
On 17 June 2026 the NSW Government committed $41 million to help commence the Gosford waterfront revitalisation and a Point Clare active-transport link. An explainer on where the transformation stands, what the money does, and what is still just advocacy.
Development
On 28 July the Central Coast Council is asked to endorse Gosford Coming Alive 2040, a framework for renewing the city centre and waterfront around the planned high-speed rail station. It names four partnership projects and dozens more and stands up a Mayor-led taskforce. On a first-hand reading of the business paper, it contains no dollar figure and no numeric housing, jobs or population target.
Environment
Central Coast Council has lodged a section 68 authorisation application with the NSW Reconstruction Authority for sand nourishment and a sloping rock revetment at Wamberal Beach, on a track that can authorise the works without the usual planning assessment or any owner's consent. The regional planning panel refused the three seawall development applications on 18 June 2026.
Cost of living
Smart Rental Bonds reached Central Coast renters in August, in a first phase shared with Parramatta and Penrith, and every NSW renter on 16 September 2026: an optional scheme that lets renters transfer an existing bond to their next place through Rental Bonds Online instead of finding a second bond upfront. How it works and who qualifies.
Coast + community
Central Coast Council has put a draft Swift Parrot Species Management Plan on public exhibition from 13 July to 10 August 2026. Submissions have closed and Council is reviewing the feedback. The bird is endangered in NSW and critically endangered nationally, and this winter at least 40 gathered in Bateau Bay backyards. The plan is Council's attempt to protect its habitat while the region keeps growing.
Community
Central Coast Council is compiling an 'Accessible Venues' brochure of entertainment, leisure and cultural places that offer genuinely accessible and inclusive experiences, so people with disability can plan ahead. The council's expression-of-interest page says applications closed on 31 July 2026, not the 27 July in its media release. What it covers, and the disability-inclusion duty it sits inside.
Development
Central Coast Council's new Accelerated Development Application process fast-tracks well-prepared, eligible DAs from 1 July 2026. The backlog it inherits has fallen from a peak of 1,099 outstanding applications to 652, and year-plus legacy cases are at their lowest since October 2022.
Transport
Transport for NSW field crews start work on Terrigal Drive between Chetwynd Road and Serpentine Road at Erina from 20 July, for about two months. Expect lane closures, reduced speed limits, footpath closures and detours while the upgrade, backed by $115 million in federal funding and $108.2 million in the NSW Budget, is scoped.
Education
Construction is well advanced on the fee-free public preschool at Tuggerawong Public School, with room for up to 40 children a day. It is one of two on the Central Coast under the NSW Government's $769 million, 100-preschool program; the other is at Umina Beach Public School.
Health
Where to go on the Central Coast when it is urgent but not life-threatening: the Medicare Urgent Care Clinics at Lake Haven, Umina Beach and Erina Fair, all walk-in and bulk billed, plus the free Medicare Mental Health Kids Hub at Tuggerah, no referral needed.
Development
Twelve social and nine affordable homes are going up on Macleay Avenue, Woy Woy, delivered by Pacific Link Housing and built by Skope Constructions. The project is financed by loans from the federal Housing Australia Future Fund and a NSW Government grant, with completion scheduled for August 2027.
Community
Frost Reserve's skatepark is growing from 200 to 750 square metres, with quarter pipes, rails, a covered spectator area and a design shaped by local riders in 2025 workshops. Fully council-funded, targeted for completion by October 2026.
Council money
Central Coast Council's adopted 2026-27 budget names the roads, sewer works, ovals and town centres getting money this year, adds $38 million for local priorities, and holds a $22 million contingency.
Development
Central Coast Council's Key Enabling Projects 2026 document, updated this week, prices its funding asks for Gosford, Woy Woy and the northern corridor. We list every costed item and what's already landed.
Council money
From 1 July 2026 the stormwater drainage charge moves off Central Coast water bills and onto general rates notices. IPART approved the transfer; council says the move itself doesn't change what you pay.
Community
Terrigal Surf Life Saving Club marked what it calls its 100th year with back-to-back Club of the Year awards, 852 members, 7,059 patrol hours and zero drowning deaths during volunteer patrols.
Environment
A $4 million federal grant will fund seven restoration projects across the Tuggerah Lakes estuary over two years, from saltmarsh repair to boat-based litter collection. Here is what each one does, and where.
Environment
The NSW Government has certified council's Open Coast Coastal Management Program, locking in sand nourishment over a buried rock revetment as the preferred fix for Wamberal Beach and opening the door to state and federal grants.
Data
Council's own population forecast has the Central Coast growing from 348,378 to 412,502 by 2046, and one district, Warnervale-Wallarah-Bushells Ridge, taking a quarter of the entire increase.
Transport
Federal Black Spot funding will pay for a centre median barrier and high-friction pavement on about a kilometre of Woy Woy Road south of Staples Lookout, a stretch carrying around 20,000 vehicles a day.