Council's Duplicate Image Audit: What Happens Next and the Key Decisions Ahead

Central Coast Council is facing a decision point over how it handles a growing catalogue of duplicate and mismatched images embedded across its planning portals, community engagement platforms, and public-facing digital assets. The issue, which has quietly accumulated since the council emerged from state administration in 2021, now requires a formal resolution before the next round of Gosford CBD renewal consultations begins later this year.

The timing matters. Council is under pressure to rebuild public trust after years of financial turmoil, and its digital presence is increasingly the first point of contact for residents checking development applications, flood mapping updates, or event listings at venues like Gosford Regional Gallery and the Central Coast Mariners Centre of Excellence at Tuggerah. When those pages serve broken thumbnails, outdated aerial photography, or duplicated stock images, it undermines the credibility of the broader renewal message.

What the Audit Has Uncovered

Council's internal digital team, operating under the Information and Communications unit within the Wyong Road administrative complex, identified the problem during a content audit linked to a platform migration project that began in March 2026. The audit found duplicated image files across multiple content management systems — a legacy of the period when the former Gosford City Council and Wyong Shire Council merged in 2016 and never fully consolidated their back-end digital infrastructure.

The practical consequences are visible. Pages related to the Gosford Waterfront Activation precinct have, at various points this year, displayed images from a 2014 event at the old Gosford Olympic Pool site rather than current renders or approved development photography. The Mann Street streetscape project page has carried duplicated before-and-after image sets that created confusion among residents trying to track progress.

The council's current Digital Strategy, adopted as part of its Organisational Recovery Plan, commits to a fully consolidated content management environment by December 2026. That deadline is now the fixed point around which several decisions must be made.

The Decisions That Cannot Wait

Three choices are immediately in front of the council. First, whether to conduct a manual review of roughly 4,200 flagged image files or procure an automated deduplication tool — a process that, based on comparable local government contracts in NSW, typically costs between $18,000 and $45,000 depending on file volume and licensing terms. Second, whether images requiring replacement are sourced through a new Central Coast-specific photography commission or drawn from a shared-licence arrangement with the NSW Government's regional imagery library. Third, how to handle images that are duplicated but also legally unclear in terms of copyright provenance — a known issue with assets imported during the 2016 merger.

The copyright question is not trivial. Under the Copyright Act 1968, councils can face liability for continued publication of images where licensing has lapsed or was never properly documented. Resolving this before the Gosford CBD community consultation — currently scheduled to open in September 2026 — gives staff a hard deadline of roughly ten weeks.

Housing and planning advocates on the Coast have separately pointed to the digital audit as an opportunity. The region's population has grown steadily as Sydney commuters seek affordable entry points — the median house price in Gosford sat around $850,000 in the first quarter of 2026 — and accurate, current imagery of development sites and local amenity is now part of how prospective buyers and renters assess the area before ever visiting in person.

The council's next ordinary meeting is scheduled for July 28 at the Wyong administration building, where the digital infrastructure report is listed as a late item for discussion. Residents wanting to track the process can submit questions through the Your Voice Our Coast engagement portal before July 21. Whatever path council chooses, the window for a decision that doesn't delay the September consultation is closing fast.