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U BLINDS PRICE PROMISE WE WILL BEAT ANY TriciaBY Sweet’s picture of a mother Purple Swamphen and her chick WRITTEN PRICE
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10% Stadium and Wyong Pool on potential Council hit list *for any comparable product
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BUY ONE GET ONE FREE Council charges residents about $150 a year on average for stormwater drainage in its water rates, bringing in about $22.6M. But under new State Government rules, Council must transfer the charge to its residential rates and can only charge $25 a year. That would bring in about $6.6M. Big ticket items on the prospective chopping block include cutting tourism promotional activities and events such as Love Lanes and business support for a saving of $6.3M and mothballing Polytec Stadium for $1.85M. “(The) stadium could be divested to
SEE PAGE 16
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A YEAR E S A L E Central Coast Council has published a list of $30M in potential cuts to its services to replace a $16M potential shortfall if it cannot get approval to continue charging residents its stormwater drainage charge.
EDITION #523 THURSDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2026
Polytec Stadium could be one of the casualties
another level of government or mothballed,” the report says. Curtains Smaller*INFINITY costs RANGE could be saved with less lawn mowing on roadsides and closing boat ramps among a long list of community service cuts. Selling carparks at Terrigal and The
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Entrance or introducing paid parking at both would save $0.65M, according to the report. Closing Wyong Pool would save about $0.6M a year in operating costs. The report says that “customer
surveys have indicated that leisure and pools fall into the Social Capital (low importance, high satisfaction) quadrant and could be considered for savings”. But one resident says Council doesn’t need to cut any services or sell any assets to cover the loss of the drainage charge and believes Council is being less than transparent. The resident, who doesn’t want to be named, says $6.6M for stormwater drainage is enough, considering Council has had four years of budget surpluses above $22M and is no longer paying off a $150M loan that it took out late in 2020. Council has applied to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) for a special variation (SV) to keep the rate at $150 when it transfers it to the residential rates.
P19 Huge Valentine’s Day weekend at Fun Haus
Sport
P32 Wheelchair AFL comes to the Coast PUZZLES PAGE 18
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