The Delivery Program sets out the work that Council plans to do in the next 4 years, to deliver on the community outcomes and goals of the Community Strategic Plan.

The Delivery Program is updated annually and includes:

• background on the community’s long-term needs and aspirations
• details of what our 16 key services provide, upcoming projects, and how service performance is measured
• service budgets and financial forecasts.

The first year of the Delivery Program is called the Operational Plan and includes the annual budget.

An overview of the 2026/27 budget is shown from page 12 of the Delivery Program, showing the Council’s income sources and how the funds will be spent. Your rates and annual charges (waste and stormwater charge) comprise around 62% of Council’s income.

The income is used to deliver services (operational budget) as well as maintenance of our infrastructure assets (capital budget) such as roads, footpaths, buildings, parks, wharves, stormwater systems, etc.

The capital budget funds both new infrastructure assets and renewal of existing assets, in line with our Asset Management Plans. Each of the 16 key services also sets out its income and expenditure for the next 4 years.

The Budget chapter provides more detail on the consolidated budget for 2026/27. It also projects our financial position for the next 4 years.

Many of the projects listed in the draft Delivery Program have rolled forward from the 2025-2029 Delivery Program, to address established needs and aspirations of our community, as well as meet the obligations of Council’s role in providing services and maintaining assets. New projects have also been proposed to address community priorities in the Community Strategic Plan.

The program of projects is further shaped by more recent community feedback on a wide range of projects, strategies and action plans – all of which have been developed together with the community, businesses, non-profit organisations, grant bodies and Government.

All projects for the coming 4 years are set out under the 16 key services. The projects for 2026/27 are also shown in the 12 local fact sheets and on the Capital Works Map.

The Fees and Charges document details how much Council will charge for a range of services in the financial year. These are usually services provided on a user-pays basis, which not all ratepayers will use, e.g. hiring halls, childcare, and theatre tickets.

The document also contains the pricing methodology for setting fees.

Fees and charges are set annually and generally rise by a modest percentage each year. They form part of the annual budget and comprise around 16% of Council’s income.

The Long-Term Financial Plan sets out how Council will financially resource its commitments in the most sustainable way - such as infrastructure renewal, maintaining services, paying down debt and funding capital projects. As a rolling 10-year plan, it is updated annually to reflect material changes in assumptions, strategies, issues and risks. It sets the stage for the annual budget in the Operational Plan and ensures financial robustness.

Your rates help Council maintain and improve our extraordinary area. The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) approves the annual maximum increase local government may raise its rates by. This is like a local government CPI.

Councils may apply to IPART for a Special Variation (SV) to increase general income above the rate peg.

In recent years, the rate peg has been much lower than inflation, causing rates income to increase at less than half the pace of rising costs. This has caused a significant and growing funding gap and placed pressure on our ability to deliver the services and infrastructure our community expect and keep our assets maintained to an acceptable level.

As a result, IPART approved a SV in rates over 2-years. Year 1 of the increase was in 2025/26 with Council adopting a 12.1% increase in rates. In accordance with IPART’s decision, the 2026/27 budget has been prepared based on a rates increase of 11.7% (inclusive of the 4.1% rate peg).

The NSW Valuer General provides land valuations to Council at least every 3 years. New land valuations have recently been issued and these valuations must be used by Council for the purpose of assessing rates for the 2026/27 year.

The total rates collected by Council isn’t affected by the revaluation, but individual property rates may vary depending on how an individual ratepayer's land valuation has changed compared to the land values of other ratepayers across the Northern Beaches.

The domestic waste management charge funds waste and recycling services to households. Costs of the service are increasing due to inflation and increasing costs of delivering the service. The standard domestic waste charge is proposed to be $652 in 2026/27 (a $53 (8.8%) increase). Of the increase, $40 is directly attributable to higher diesel fuel costs.

Diesel fuel is a significant cost driver for waste management, as the service relies heavily on fuel‑intensive vehicle fleets for kerbside collection and the transport of waste to processing and disposal facilities. These cost pressures are largely outside Council’s control and reflect broader market and supply conditions impacting the transport sector.

Council is committed to realising productivity savings in its operations. Between 2022-2025 annual ongoing savings of $8.2 million were achieved and in the 9 months to 31 March 2026 savings of $2.4 million have been realised. For 2026/27 Council has a targeted saving/income improvement of $1.2 million (see Productivity and Improvement Plan factsheet).

Every submission received will be considered in the process of finalising the documents on exhibition. We will remove personal and identifying information from submissions before making the content public in the report to the Council meeting.

The final documents and community engagement report will be presented to Council on Tuesday 16 June 2026.

The report will be included in the agenda papers for the meeting, which will be available by Wednesday 3 June 2026.

View details about Council meetings here.