Central Coast Council's Digital Archive Overhaul Hits a Snag as Duplicate Image Problem Surfaces This Week

Central Coast Council confirmed this week that an audit of its online planning and property information portal has uncovered a significant duplicate image problem, with staff identifying more than 400 redundant files across development application records dating back to 2019. The issue has slowed public access to DA documents at a time when the Gosford CBD renewal corridor is generating some of the highest application volumes the region has seen in years.

The timing matters. Council is still clawing back credibility after emerging from state-government-appointed administration in 2023, and any friction in its public-facing digital services draws scrutiny quickly. Residents and building professionals lodging or tracking applications through the NSW Planning Portal — which links to Council's own document management system — reported this week that duplicate file entries were causing page-load failures and, in several cases, returning incorrect images attached to the wrong DA reference numbers.

Where the Problem Showed Up

The errors surfaced most visibly in two active precincts. Planning staff flagged duplicate image sets in DA files tied to Mann Street, Gosford, where at least three mixed-use residential projects are currently under assessment, and in documents related to the Warnervale employment lands rezoning proposal that Council lodged supporting material for in May 2026. In both cases, applicants attempting to view site photos or architectural drawings through the portal were being served cached copies of older, unrelated images.

Council's digital records team — part of the broader IT restructure that followed the administration period — traced the problem to a batch migration of legacy TRIM records conducted in late 2025. During that migration, an automated deduplication script failed to run correctly on a subset of approximately 1,200 image files, leaving multiple copies indexed under the same document reference. The Gosford and Warnervale files happened to fall within that affected batch.

The Council's corporate services directorate has not issued a formal public statement as of Saturday morning, but internal communications reviewed by The Daily Central Coast indicate that a targeted replacement process for the affected files began on Wednesday, July 2, with an expected completion date of Friday, July 11. Staff have been asked to manually verify image attachments on any DA lodged or updated since October 2025.

What It Means for Applicants Right Now

For developers and homeowners waiting on decisions, the practical advice from Council's planning counter at 2 Hely Street, Wyong — and the Gosford office on Mann Street — is to contact the assigned planning officer directly rather than relying solely on the portal to confirm which documents are on file. This is particularly relevant for applications with a 28-day notification period currently running, where neighbours checking the portal may be seeing outdated imagery.

The issue also has a broader resonance on the Coast right now. Housing affordability pressure from Sydney commuters has pushed DA lodgement numbers up sharply in the Gosford-to-Wyong corridor over the past 18 months, and any slowdown in processing, even one caused by a backend file management glitch, adds days to timelines that buyers and investors are watching closely. According to CoreLogic data published in June 2026, the Central Coast median house price sat at $880,000, underscoring the financial stakes attached to delayed approvals.

Council has advised that the duplicate image replacement work will not require the portal to go offline. Anyone who submitted a DA or lodged amended plans between October 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026 should log back into the NSW Planning Portal after July 11 and verify their document attachments display correctly. If discrepancies remain after that date, Council's development assessment team can be reached through the online customer service request form. The repair process, while unglamorous, is the kind of administrative housekeeping that Council's post-administration era has required in steady, incremental doses.