MidCoast Council is inviting community feedback on its Draft Delivery Program and Draft Operational Plan, outlining Council's priorities, services, and investment for the year ahead.
The draft plans reflect the reality of increasing financial pressures and the need to prioritise essential services and infrastructure across one of the largest local government areas in New South Wales.
Mayor Claire Pontin said the draft budget and program had been carefully developed to balance community needs with long-term financial sustainability.
"Council is increasingly being relied upon to deliver services and infrastructure that were traditionally the responsibility of other levels of government, while funding sources such as the Federal Assistance Grants have declined over time," Mayor Pontin said.
"We have been working hard to find savings and cut costs, but we simply cannot fund every project our community would like to see, so we need to make difficult decisions and trade-offs to ensure we remain financially sustainable."
Council manages almost $6 billion in infrastructure assets across a local government area spanning more than 10,000 square kilometres. With a relatively small population base, maintaining assets such as the large road network, presents ongoing challenges.
The draft 2026-27 budget includes total expenditure of $439 million. This year's budget has been boosted substantially as a result of disaster recovery funding.
Improving the region's extensive road network remains a key priority with over $58 million allocated to road renewals and maintenance. To help achieve this, Council has undertaken a detailed review of its operations, identifying savings to redirect an extra $4.064 million into road funding.
An additional amount of over $90 million is for natural disaster recovery works arising from the May 2025 floods.
This brings the total amount allocated to roads in 2026-27 to almost $149 million.
"We know our community expects better road conditions, and we acknowledge that many of our roads currently do not meet those expectations," the Mayor said.
"For many decades, our road network has been underfunded, and we are not currently investing at the level required to keep pace with deterioration.
"While we cannot close the funding gap, we are directing as much funding as possible into roads by finding savings across other services."
Key road initiatives include resealing, rehabilitation, heavy patching, drainage maintenance, and safety improvements such as updated line marking, signage, and guideposts.
Council continues to face financial sustainability challenges driven by rising costs, limited revenue sources, and the impacts of natural disasters, including floods.
Council is undertaking ongoing service reviews to improve efficiency while maintaining essential services.
The draft budget incorporates a number of increases which are necessary to reflect increased material and labour costs. Council will increase rates by 3.1% in line with the rate peg increase as set by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal. This will result in an increase in rate income for Council but doesn't mean that all ratepayers will experience a 3.1% increase in their rates. Individual household rates are based on individual land values as set by the Valuer General. The share of the 3.1% increase will vary from area to area. We have applied similar increases to our fees and charges, which are services that are not funded from rates income.
"We are all experiencing price hikes across a variety of goods and services," said Mayor Pontin.
"Council's operating costs have also risen significantly. That's why it's important that we act responsibly and apply the IPART rate peg increase."
Council is committed to improving customer experience and strengthening its relationship with the community through clearer communication, reliable service delivery, and ongoing efficiencies in our internal systems and processes.
"We want to hear from our community about what matters most to them," Mayor Pontin said.
"These plans are about making informed decisions together to ensure we can continue delivering priority services and working hard to maintain our infrastructure now and into the future."
The Draft Delivery Program for 2025-2029 (revised 2026-27) and Draft Operational Plan for 2026-27 will be on public exhibition from 1 May to 4 June.
Summary
Improving the region's extensive road network remains a key priority, with almost $149 million allocated to roads in 2026-2027. This includes:
- Around $19 million for maintenance
- Over $39 million for capital works
- Over $90 million for natural disaster recovery works
In addition to roads, the draft budget includes significant investment in community infrastructure and essential services, including:
- $6 million for community assets such as sporting facilities, parks, and public amenities
- $25 million for water infrastructure projects
- $69 million for sewer infrastructure upgrades
- $17 million for landfill upgrades and environmental compliance
- $11.5 million on the new Food Organics Garden Organics processing facility, which is a State Government requirement
- $900,000 for stormwater drainage improvement works
Proposed increases for the 2026-27 financial year include:
- 3.1% in general rates as per the IPART rate peg
- 3.1% increase in waste charges
- 5% increase in water charges
- 5.5% increase in sewer charges
- $25 annual stormwater charge per residential property
Council continues to strive for allocating funds where they are most needed and balancing its budget. We would appreciate your feedback.
