Know what each option delivers
The snapshot table shows you more detail, phasing over 3 years and what will be achieved in each option.
Planning for our long-term financial sustainability
High inflation, natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, and significant costs shifted to Council like the Emergency Services Levy, have placed increasing pressure on Council's ability to maintain the services and facilities our community value. Council's budget has been hit with significant costs over recent years, including:
- $15m to cover the impact of natural disasters.
- $41m from COVID-19 pandemic.
- $3m cost shift from the State Government to Council for the Emergency Services Levy.
So we made savings and found ways to deliver services more efficiently, such as:
- $6m (at amalgamation and ongoing) in decreasing back office operating costs to support increases in some community facing services
- $7.4m saved over the past 5 years through reducing agency personnel costs, bank fees, insurance costs, fleet costs, employee costs and implementing a service review program in 2020 that has led to over 230 service improvements
- $0.5m in annual savings through upgrades to energy efficient sports field lighting and solar panels on Council buildings
- $2.52 million saved since 2021 through a renewable energy contract
- Reducing interest costs through paying down $81m in loans from the former councils.
But despite saving millions, this has not been enough. Cost increases have outpaced income from rates at more than double the speed, and we now have a gap of $24 million every year from inflation alone.
Rate options for financial sustainability
Find out what the options mean for you?
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See the detail
Explore each option in more detail
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Option 1 - Reduce service
See more detailsNo Special Variation, Fixed Rate Peg (3.8% 2025/26) increase only. This option includes ongoing deficits and involve Council undertaking widespread assessment of its services to reduce services to balance its budget.
Option 2 - Maintain service
See more detailsProposes a Special Variation of a 6% increase in addition to the rate peg each year for 3 years to primarily address the asset renewal and maintenance gap and support environmental and natural risk reduction programs.
Option 3 - Improve service
See more detailsProposes a Special Variation of a 8.3% increase in addition to the rate peg each year for 2 years and 8.4% in year 3. This option would seek to deliver Option 2, as well as provide the opportunity to deliver larger renewal projects in future years such as the renewal of the Warringah Aquatic Centre.
Option 4 - Increase service
See more detailsProposes a special variation of a 10% increase in addition to the rate peg each year for 3 years. This option would seek to deliver Options 2 and 3, as well as provide the opportunity to accelerate the delivery of infrastructure and increase services in areas such as additional community grants, more footpaths, a fit for purpose lifeguard headquarters and improvements to sporting facilities and amenities buildings.
Helpful factsheets, reports, and more
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Our work to find savings
Report on our Productivity & Improvement Plan
Why do we need a Special Variation?
Read the factsheet
Know how your rates are spent
Delivering services to our community
Have your say
We invite you to view the options and provide your feedback by:
- completing the submission form below, or
- emailing or writing to us. Please include 'Proposal for a Special Variation to rates' in the subject line of all email or written feedback.
Community sentiment on the four rate options for financial sustainability will be considered by Council at a meeting in late January 2025.
Submissions close Sunday 12 January 2025
Support
If you need assistance providing feedback or would like information supplied in your language or another format, please contact Council via 1300 434 434 or council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au.
If you would like to speak to someone over the phone in your language, call Translation and Interpreting Service (TIS) on 131 450 for a free interpreting service.
རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར།
གལ་སྲིད་ཁྱེད་རང་ལ་དགོངས་འཆར་འབུལ་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་རོགས་རམ་དགོས་པ་ཡང་ན་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཡིག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཡང་ན་རྣམ་པ་གཞན་ཞིག་གི་ལམ་ནས་གནས་ཚུལ་ཐོབ་འདོད་ཡོད་ན། ལྷན་ཁང་ལ་ཨང་གྲངས་ 1300 434 434 ཡང་ན་གློག་འཕྲིན་ council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au བརྒྱུད་ནས་འབྲེལ་གནང་རོགས།
གལ་སྲིད་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་རང་གི་སྐད་ཡིག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཁ་པར་ཐོག་མི་ཞིག་ལ་སྐད་ཆ་བཤད་འདོད་ཡོད་ན། ཡིག་སྒྱུར་དང་སྐད་སྒྱུར་ཞབས་ཞུ་
(Translation and Interpreting Service, TIS) ནས་རིན་པ་སྤྲོད་མི་དགོས་པའི་སྐད་སྒྱུར་ཞབས་ཞུ་ཞིག་ཐོབ་ཆེད་ཨང་གྲངས་ 131 450
支持
如果您在提供反馈时需要帮助，或希望我们以您的语言或其他格式提供信息，请致电1300 434 434 或发送邮件至council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au，与市政议会取得联系。
如果您想用您的语言与他人进行电话交谈，请拨打口笔译服务处 (Translation and Interpreting Service TIS ) 的热线 131 450，获得免费口译服务。
Apoyo
Si necesita ayuda para hacernos llegar su opinión o desea que le facilitemos la información en su idioma o en otro formato, póngase en contacto con el Concejo al 1300 434 434 o en council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au
Si desea hablar con alguien por teléfono en su idioma, llame al Servicio de Traducción e Interpretación (Translation and Interpreting Service, TIS) en el 131 450 para recibir un servicio gratuito de interpretación.
समर्थन
तपाईंलाई पृष्ठपोषण प्रदान गर्न सहायता चाहिएमा वा आफ्नो भाषामा वा अर्को ढाँचामा जानकारी प्राप्त गर्न चाहेमा, कृपया काउन्सिललाई 1300 434 434 वा council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au मा सम्पर्क गर्नुहोस्
तपाईं फोनमा कुनै व्यक्तिसँग आफ्नो भाषामा कुरा गर्न चाहनुहुन्छ भने, निःशुल्क दोभाषे सेवाका लागि अनुवादन तथा दोभाषे सेवा (Translation and Interpreting Service, TIS) लाई 131 450 मा कल गर्नुहोस्।
सहायता
यदि आपको फीडबैक प्रदान करने में सहायता की आवश्यकता है या आप अपनी भाषा या किसी अन्य प्रारूप में जानकारी चाहते हैं, तो कृपया परिषद् से 1300 434 434 या council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au पर ईमेल के माध्यम से संपर्क करें।
यदि आप अपनी भाषा में किसी से फोन पर बात करना चाहते हैं, तो निःशुल्क दुभाषिया सेवा के लिए अनुवाद और दुभाषिया सेवा (टीआईएस) (Translation and Interpreting Service (TIS)) को 131 450 पर कॉल करें।
الدعم
الدعم
إذا كنت بحاجة إلى مساعدة لتقديم ملاحظات أو كنت ترغب في الحصول على معلومات بلغتك أو بتنسيق آخر، فيُرجى الاتصال بالمجلس على الرقم
1300 434 434 أو عبر البريد الإلكتروني council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au
وإذا كنت ترغب في التحدث إلى شخص ما عبر الهاتف بلغتك، فاتصل بخدمة الترجمة التحريرية والشفهية (Translation and Interpreting Service
(TIS)) على الرقم 450 131 للحصول على خدمة ترجمة شفهية مجانية. وأخبِر مَن تتصل به بلغتك المختارة وبأنك تريد التحدث إلى أحد مسؤولي مجلس نورثرن
Contact customer service on:
1300 434 434
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians and their Country on which we gather today. By these words we show our respect to all Aboriginal people. We acknowledge Elders past, present and emerging and the spirits and ancestors of the Clans that lived in this area.
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