Central Coast Council’s Harmony Day event, Flavours by the Sea, will return on Saturday 25 March bringing the tastes, sights and sounds of the world to the Central Coast.  Flavours by the Sea is an annual celebration of the region’s multicultural diversity with a taste of the world’s best food, music, and art along Terrigal Foreshore, from 11am-3pm.

Central Coast Council’s $9 million landfill cell at its Buttonderry Waste Management Facility has been awarded the Environmental Enhancement Project Award at the 2023 NSW & ACT Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) Engineering Excellence Awards.  Designing for the new cell commenced in June 2019 with construction completed in August 2022.

World Water Day on Wednesday 22 March is about accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis and a chance to highlight Central Coast’s Council’s plans to secure safe drinking water for the region.  Council operates three dams (Mangrove Creek Dam, Mardi Dam and Mooney Mooney Dam) and three water treatment plants (Mardi, Somersby and Woy Woy), supplying filtered, treated drinking water to over 139,000 homes and businesses.

Last week, Council launched the Let’s Talk Gosford place-based community engagement project, which showcases multiple key projects, plans, strategies and infrastructure works planned for Gosford.

Council’s financial turnaround reached a landmark with the February Council Meeting adoption of the 2021/2022 Financial Statements after an unqualified audit by the NSW Audit Office.

Libraries on the Central Coast are celebrating a major milestone today, 16 March 2023!

Council’s draft Central Coast Local Housing Strategy is now on exhibition for community input.

Council is heading back out to the community to talk all things Gosford, just four months after its major community consultation project for the revitalisation of Gosford waterfront.

I was delighted to walk a stretch of the Tuggerah Lake Foreshore shared pathway at Long Jetty recently to check out the pictures Council has stencilled along the pathway.  The purposeful education campaign aims to raise awareness of pathway etiquette and safety for everyone and is an action of Council’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) 2021-2025.

Central Coast Council is continuing its commitment to deliver over $1 million worth of upgrades to Council leisure and recreation centres this financial year, with $300,000 being spent on new gym equipment upgrades at Lake Haven Recreation Centre.

Central Coast Council is hosting a series of community pop-ups along the foreshore this month to provide residents with an opportunity to share concerns, ideas or ask questions related to the Tuggerah Lakes Estuary.

Houston, we don’t have a problem.

I was pleased to see a report come to the February Council meeting which provided a thorough update to the community on how Council manages the Central Coast’s extensive 2,000km road network and 1,100km drainage network.  The report (Item 2.9 – Critical road related grants and funding and associated delivery methodology) outlined some of the challenges to roads and drainage management, and the various funding streams available to Council to manage these assets for the community.  Roads management is without a doubt a ‘hot topic’ for residents, and Council acknowledges the frustration the community has felt about road quality over the last few years.  The relentless wet weather driven by three consecutive La Nina climate patterns over the last two years put extreme stress on all Councils along the NSW east coast to repair their road networks after widespread damage experienced.

Central Coast Council has installed creative stencils along the Tuggerah Lake Foreshore shared pathway as an education campaign to increase positive attitudes and behaviours towards people with a disability.  This campaign aims to raise awareness of pathway etiquette and safety for everyone and is an action of Council’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) 2021-2025.

Central Coast Council has been named a finalist in the “Marketing and Communications for Impact Award” category in the Banksia Foundation’s 34th National Banksia Sustainability Awards.

In response to feedback from local community members, Central Coast Council Administrator, Rik Hart, has asked Council’s CEO, David Farmer, to pause negotiations between Council and any prospective owner of the commuter carpark at Woy Woy train station until after the NSW State Election.

Gosford’s waterfront revitalisation project is moving forward following very positive community feedback to ‘just get on with it’!

Central Coast Council has taken another step in delivering its ground-breaking Central Coast Affordable and Alternative Housing Strategy by agreeing to transfer land to Pacific Link Housing Limited for them to build and deliver an affordable housing development at 23-25 Ashton Avenue The Entrance.

At the 28 February Council meeting, Council staff provided an update on the Gosford waterfront’s revitalisation project, and a comprehensive engagement report was tabled which expanded on the preliminary engagement report released in December 2022.

Central Coast Council is commencing the renewal of ten playspaces across the region to provide upgraded recreational facilities for the community.