Central Coast Council Tackles Duplicate Image Problem Plaguing Digital Asset Library This Week

Central Coast Council confirmed this week that it is working through a significant duplicate-image problem inside its digital asset management system, a technical headache that has slowed the processing of development applications lodged through the NSW Planning Portal and complicated the ongoing Gosford CBD renewal documentation process.

The issue matters right now because Council is mid-way through digitising historical infrastructure records as part of its post-administration recovery obligations. The organisation, which exited financial administration in 2021 after a $565 million debt crisis, is under continuing pressure from the NSW Government to demonstrate sound data governance. Duplicated files inside the asset library directly affect that audit trail.

What Went Wrong and Where

Staff identified the problem after a routine records audit flagged thousands of image files appearing more than once across the system's shared drives. The duplication is understood to stem from a 2023 migration of legacy records from two separate pre-amalgamation council systems — the former Gosford City Council and the former Wyong Shire Council — which were merged in 2016. Neither system used a consistent file-naming convention, meaning identical photographs of sites including Kibble Park in Gosford, Tuggerah Lakes foreshore, and the Wyong Town Centre were ingested multiple times under different reference numbers.

The practical knock-on effect is visible at the Gosford Planning and Business Centre on Mann Street, where counter staff have this week been manually cross-checking supporting images attached to development applications before forwarding files to assessment officers. That extra step has added at least two business days to the preliminary lodgement review for some residential applications, according to internal procedural notes circulated to applicants through the NSW Planning Portal.

For residents watching the Gosford CBD renewal closely, the timing is awkward. The Gosford Activation Precinct — a priority zone stretching roughly from the Gosford train station down to the waterfront at Briens Road — has active development proposals pending, and any delay in the DA pipeline feeds frustration about a city centre that has been waiting on regeneration promises for over a decade.

Scale of the Problem and What Comes Next

Council's digital records team has identified approximately 14,000 image files flagged as potential duplicates out of a total asset library that now holds more than 200,000 items. The figure comes from an internal triage report completed in the last fortnight. Staff are using deduplication software to automate the bulk of the removal, but files linked to active planning, legal, or infrastructure records require a human check before deletion to avoid destroying the only copy of a relevant document.

The Central Coast Community Environment Network, which monitors Council's compliance activities around Tuggerah Lakes and the Brisbane Water estuary, has been in contact with Council's records team about ensuring environmental monitoring photographs are not among the files wrongly identified as duplicates and removed. The network maintains its own parallel photographic archive of foreshore conditions dating back to 2005, which could serve as a cross-reference if Council records are found to have gaps.

Council expects the automated phase of the clean-up to be completed by late July 2026. A manual review of the remaining flagged files — estimated at around 3,000 items requiring human assessment — is scheduled for August. Once complete, the deduplication work is expected to reduce total storage requirements on the Council's managed servers and cut the time planners spend searching for site photographs when preparing assessment reports.

Residents and developers with applications currently sitting in the Gosford Planning and Business Centre queue have been advised to check the NSW Planning Portal for status updates rather than calling the Mann Street counter directly. Council's website lists a dedicated email address for DA-related inquiries. The NSW Government's Planning Portal also shows real-time lodgement and assessment status for any application reference number.