Central Coast Council Moves to Fix Duplicate Image Problem Blighting Online Property and Planning Records

Central Coast Council confirmed this week it is working through a backlog of duplicate and mismatched images embedded in its public-facing development application database, a problem that has caused confusion for residents, architects and property buyers trying to research sites across the region. The issue affects records spanning multiple suburbs, from Gosford CBD through to Wyong and The Entrance, and has in some cases linked photographs from one property to an entirely different address.

The timing matters. Council only exited formal financial administration in 2021 after a period of significant institutional disruption, and it has spent the years since trying to rebuild confidence in its digital infrastructure and public records systems. The planning portal — which feeds information to NSW Planning's State-wide database — is one of the most visited pages on the council website, used by everyone from first-home buyers in Woy Woy checking flood overlays to commercial developers scoping sites on Mann Street in Gosford.

What Went Wrong and When It Was Caught

Council staff identified the duplicate image issue during a routine audit of its content management system in late June 2026. The problem appears to stem from a bulk data migration carried out when council consolidated its legacy Wyong and Gosford systems following the 2016 merger of the two former councils. In that migration, image files were tagged with metadata referencing plot identifiers, and in a portion of cases those tags were either duplicated or assigned to the wrong record. The precise number of affected files has not been publicly confirmed by council, but the audit scope covers records lodged between 2016 and 2022.

The practical effect has been visible to anyone doing due diligence on a property. A resident on The Entrance Road, for instance, might open a development application and find site photographs that clearly show a different streetscape. For conveyancers and planning consultants operating out of offices on Gosford's Donnison Street precinct, the errors have added time and cost to what should be routine searches. Housing affordability pressures on the Central Coast — where the median house price has climbed sharply as Sydney commuters moved north along the F3 — mean that property transactions here move quickly, and bad data can derail settlements.

The Fix, and What Residents Should Do Now

Council's digital services team has prioritised records tied to active development applications and any files associated with properties in the Gosford CBD renewal precinct, where construction activity has intensified around the Kibble Park and Waterfront precincts. Those records are being manually reviewed and corrected first. Older, archived applications from the Wyong shire area are in a secondary queue.

The NSW Government's ePlanning portal, which draws on council data, carries a disclaimer advising users to contact the relevant local council to verify information before relying on it for legal or financial purposes — a step that many buyers skip. Council has not issued a formal public notice about the audit, but its customer service centre at 2 Hely Street, Wyong, and the Gosford office on Mann Street are both equipped to run manual record checks on request.

Anyone who lodged or responded to a development application between January 2016 and December 2022 and relies on the online record for any current purpose — whether a refinancing, a neighbour dispute, or a new building project — should request a verified copy of the relevant file directly from council rather than relying on screenshots from the portal. Council's standard turnaround for information access requests under the Government Information (Public Access) Act is 20 working days, though straightforward record requests are often processed faster. The cleanup is expected to be substantially complete by the end of August 2026, according to the council's own published project schedule for its digital systems improvement program.