Central Coast Council's Image Audit Uncovers Duplicate and Outdated Assets Across Digital Platforms This Week

Central Coast Council confirmed this week it is partway through a structured audit of its digital image library, after an internal review identified significant numbers of duplicate, low-resolution and outdated photographs spread across its public-facing websites, planning portals and community communications channels. The process, which began in late June 2026, is tied to a broader digital governance overhaul that has been in progress since the council emerged from state administration in 2021.

The timing matters. Council is currently pushing forward with its Gosford CBD revitalisation agenda, producing regular promotional and planning materials centred on the Mann Street corridor and the broader Gosford waterfront precinct. Duplicate or mismatched imagery in those materials — particularly in development application portals and community engagement pages — has, according to council's own published digital improvement roadmap, contributed to confusion among residents trying to track specific projects.

What the Audit Found and Where the Problems Sit

The review identified three main categories of problem assets. First, photographs of demolished or substantially altered sites — including some images predating the 2015 redevelopment activity around Kibble Park in Gosford — still appearing in active web pages. Second, near-identical images stored under different file names, inflating the size of the content management system and slowing page load times across council's suite of online tools. Third, images tagged with incorrect location metadata, meaning searches for Wyong town centre assets were returning results from Gosford and vice versa.

Council's digital services team is working through approximately 14,000 image files held across its primary CMS and two legacy archive systems inherited when the former Gosford City Council and Wyong Shire Council merged in May 2016. That merger created one of the largest local government areas on the New South Wales coast by both population and geographic scale, and the digital back-end has carried the seams of that join ever since.

The practical consequences have been visible to anyone following council's community engagement work. The Your Voice Our Coast platform, which council uses to gather public submissions on planning and infrastructure proposals, displayed at least two project pages earlier this year showing aerial photography that no longer reflected current site conditions — an issue council acknowledged in a published update to that platform in April 2026.

Replacement Process and What Residents Should Expect

The replacement workflow being applied is methodical rather than rapid. Each flagged image goes through a three-stage check: verification of the correct site or subject, confirmation of licensing and rights clearance, and final sign-off from the relevant service unit — whether that is planning, parks and recreation, or infrastructure. For high-traffic pages, replacements are being prioritised first. Council's Gosford Revitalisation project page and the Central Coast Regional Planning Portal are among those at the top of the queue.

Photography sourced for replacement is coming from two pools. Council's in-house communications team has been conducting location shoots since early June, with sessions confirmed at Leagues Club Park in Gosford and along the Tuggerah Lakes foreshore near The Entrance. A secondary tranche of imagery is being licensed from a Central Coast-based photography supplier under a framework contract established in the 2025–26 financial year budget cycle.

The audit work sits under a broader Digital Experience Improvement Program that council listed as a funded initiative in its 2025–26 Operational Plan. That plan allocated resources toward improving the accessibility and accuracy of council's online presence — a priority that gained urgency after community feedback gathered during the council recovery period flagged digital communications as a consistent weak point.

Residents using council's online portals over the coming weeks may notice image placeholders or temporarily blank thumbnails on certain project and event pages. Council's customer service centre on Mann Street, Gosford, is the point of contact for anyone needing clarification on a specific project page. The full audit is expected to be substantially complete by the end of August 2026, with a progress report scheduled to go before the elected council at its September ordinary meeting.