Central Coast Council's mapping system hit by duplicate image fault, delaying DA approvals this week

Central Coast Council confirmed this week that a duplicate image replacement fault in its online Development Application tracking system has disrupted planning portal operations, creating backlogs that are affecting applicants from Gosford to Wyong. The issue, which emerged in late June and resurfaced after a partial fix on Monday, involves uploaded site plans and architectural drawings being overwritten or incorrectly duplicated within the council's document management system, meaning officers cannot reliably match submitted images to the correct application files.

The timing matters. Council is already working through a substantial backlog of residential DAs — housing affordability pressure has pushed a wave of dual-occupancy and secondary dwelling applications across suburbs including Niagara Park, Tuggerah and Woy Woy, as Sydney commuters try to make cheaper land work harder. Any additional delay lands on a pipeline that applicants and builders say was already stretched before the fault appeared.

What the fault is actually doing to applications

The core problem is that council's document portal — used to lodge and track DAs under the NSW planning system — stores uploaded images against unique file identifiers. When a duplicate image replacement occurs, the system can assign the same identifier to two different documents, meaning an elevation drawing for a house in Wyoming might appear against an entirely separate application in Terrigal. Staff have been manually cross-checking submissions lodged between June 22 and July 2 to identify affected files.

Central Coast Council entered administration in 2020 after running up a reported debt of around $565 million, and the recovery process has included staged investment in digital infrastructure. The planning portal upgrade — part of a broader customer experience program — went live progressively from 2023. This week's fault is understood to be linked to a software patch applied in the final week of June, though council has not issued a formal statement on the cause as of Saturday morning.

The Gosford CBD renewal precinct, where council and the NSW Government have been trying to accelerate medium-density approvals around Mann Street and the Gosford waterfront corridor, has at least a dozen active DAs that fall within the affected lodgement window. Builders working on infill projects near the Gosford Hospital redevelopment zone are among those who contacted the council's Wyong and Gosford service centres this week seeking clarification on whether their documents were intact.

What applicants are being told to do now

Council is advising anyone who lodged a DA or modified an existing application between June 22 and July 2 to log back into the NSW Planning Portal and verify that attached images match their submitted drawings. If documents appear incorrect or mismatched, applicants are being directed to contact council's development assessment team directly rather than re-uploading, which risks compounding the duplication problem.

The practical stakes are real for a region where median house prices in suburbs like Erina and Hamlyn Terrace have climbed significantly over the past three years, pushing more owners toward renovation and subdivision as an alternative to buying up. A delayed DA can mean extended holding costs — on a standard construction loan at current variable rates above 6 per cent, even a four-week processing delay on a $600,000 build carries a measurable dollar cost.

Council has flagged that assessment officers will prioritise clearing the affected June 22 to July 2 lodgements before end of next week, July 11. Applications lodged after July 3 — when a second patch was applied — are understood to be processing normally. The Central Coast Local Planning Panel, which handles DAs above certain thresholds, is scheduled to meet on July 16 and council says affected panel-referred applications will be assessed for any impact before that meeting date. Applicants with urgent timelines are being encouraged to call the Gosford office on Donnison Street directly rather than waiting on portal notifications.