February 1-28, 2026: Issue 651

 

Northern Beaches Council's 'Ban on Residents Voices' Extended Across First Quarter of 2026

Cr De Luca and Cr Singh and spoke to Pittwater Residents group Protect Pittwater, which is working to restore Pittwater Council, and turned up to protest outside the February 2026 NBC meeting against the silencing of community voices and the sale of a Pittwater Council asset bought by the ratepayers of Pittwater, some wondering if they may be breaking the law by doing so. Photo supplied

Mosman Council: Questions Time + Public Forum

On January 29 2026 Mosman Council advised that based on directives issued to all NSW councils by the State Government, there will be changes to how community members can participate in Mosman Council meetings from 3 February, the first Council meeting of the year. 

Open Question Time will take place at 6.20pm in the Council Chambers, and will provide an opportunity for community input. 
This will be followed by a Public Forum for registered speakers wishing to address items listed on the meeting agenda, before the Council meeting commences at 7pm. 

For more information, to view the agendas of Council Meetings, or to register to speak, visit the Mosman Council Meetings webpage. 

Northern Beaches Council Recission Motion On Hearing from residents Deferred to March 2026

On December 16 2025 Crs. De Luca, Singh and Giltinan lodged a Notice of Motion to rescind Council’s resolution in respect of of its 'Outcome of Public Exhibition - Draft Code of Meeting Practice', made at the 16 December 2025 Council meeting.

The Northern Beaches Council had voted to remove the Public Address and Public Forum from council meetings.

Only the Public Forum, addressing Items on the meeting agendas was to be retained and this was to be moved to 7 days prior to any council meeting. 

Any late Additional Information, such as the 4 listed atop the Recission Motion, all dated February 16 2026, the day before, would not be included in what residents could address.

The Northern Beaches Council had been pushing for changes to hearing from residents prior to this, and pushing them through.

At the February 27 2018 Meeting, for councillors elected to the newly established 'Northern Beaches Council', after the May 2016 forced amalgamation of Pittwater with Warringah and a year and a half under an Administrator imposed by the previous NSW Coalition Government, the council's then draft Meeting Code proposed abolishing the Public Forum prior to meetings. 

Then (Feb. 2018) it was proposed that, if that draft Code of Meeting Practice was adopted, the Public Forum would continue as a separate community meeting held five times a year in venues rotating across the region. 

To Item 8.3 Cr.s De Luca an Ferguson proposed adding 'Clause 5.19, Public Forum': 

a. a Public forum will be conducted at each Ordinary Council Meeting for a period of 30 minutes (maximum of 10 speakers at 3 minutes each)  
b. Public Forum should not be used to raise routine questions, matters or complaints. Such matters should be forwarded in writing to Council where they will be responded to by appropriate Council offices 
c. any question to Council must be submitted with the request to address Council and will be reviewed by staff prior to the meeting. If the question is deemed to be a routine matter it will be processed as a customer request and a response will be provided in accordance with customer service standards 
d. if a question cannot be answered at the meeting a written response will be provided in accordance with customer service standards. 

This was carried with only Crs Bingham, Heins, Philpott and Regan voting against it.

The draft Code of Meeting Practice was exhibited for 28 days and consequently passed.

In speaking on the amendment, to not abolish the Public Forum, Cr. De Luca said then (2018);

“We have heard from our community tonight that they do not want the Public Forum as proposed (in the then current draft)..’

We should not be restricting our community’s right to address us through any avenue available.

We are only sitting a mere 10 times a year. It is not an unfair or unreasonable expectation by our community for them to expect us to listen to them every month.

I commend the Amendment Motion to you and ask you to do what our community wants not what we, as elected representatives, feel is more efficient, to shorten council meetings. 

The perception is, (by the community) is that we are gagging the community for our own benefit."

In August 2024 the Northern Beaches Council proposed cutting the amount of time residents and councillors will be allowed to speak at meetings and to ban photography anywhere near them.

Speakers’ time during public forums (to Items on Agenda) and addresses was to be reduced from three to two minutes. These had already been shortened as they had once been 5 minutes.

  • Encouraging councils to hold public forums preferably before committee meetings, ... to enable community engagement in local matters
At the December 2025 meeting the council again tabled its preferred interpretation which included removal Public Forums from prior to council meetings and the Public Address. The Item was passed, and included:
  • A public forum will be conducted prior to each ordinary meeting of the Council for the purpose of hearing oral submissions from members of the public on mayoral minutes, reports to council and notices of motion (collectively, items of business), to be considered at the meeting.   
  • The public forum will be held in Council Chambers from 6.00pm 7 days prior to an ordinary meeting of the Council. 
and:
  • A public forum should not be used to raise questions or complaints. Such matters should be forwarded in writing to the council where they will be responded to by appropriate council officers.
And that the council would:
  • Establish a monthly community engagement forum, separate from the public forum referred to in clause 4 of the Code of Meeting Practice, to be held on the same evening as that public forum, for Councillors to hear from the members of the public on items not on the Council meeting agenda, on a trial basis for 6 months.
And:
  • Note its opinion that the amendments to the draft Code are not substantial and it may adopt the amended draft Code without public exhibition as its code of meeting practice.
Part of the reasons behind removing residents voices from before council meetings continues to be reducing the length of these. This, it has been stated, would enable the meetings to be more productive through being able to get through the Items listed in each agenda.

The length of meetings, due to the amount of business to be gone through, often sees these finishing closer to midnight and this impacts on the ability of those to do what they're there to do - councillors and council staff all have 'day jobs' and family responsibilities - even before taking into account ensuring everyone gets home safely, even if that is not mentioned. Fatigue has been recorded as a primary source of road accidents.

However, the Minutes from the February 2026 meeting, as with other council meetings, show a large number of Items 'resolved by exception', meaning they didn't get discussed at all, just passed, (did the councillors get time to read all the documents?' residents ask - 119 pages in Agenda, 735 pages in the Attachment Booklet), and that despite vetoing hearing from residents - stated to be 'muzzling' and 'silencing community dissent' in emails to the news service since Tuesday - the meeting finished at 11:43pm.

As with other council meetings, the February 17 2026 meeting saw items deferred to the ordinary Council meeting of 17 March 2026 in accordance with clause 19.4(a) of the Code of Meeting Practice, including the recission Motion: 
  • 14.1  Notice of Rescission 4/2025 - Item 9.2 - Outcome of Public Exhibition - Draft Code of Meeting Practice 
  • 10.1  Update on Notice of Motion No 38/2021 - Masterplan for Manly to Shelly Beach Walk 
The council had already put up a Notice on its Council Meetings webpage prior to the first meeting of the year, stating:

Changes to public address
As of 1 January 2026, the NSW Government has changed the way councils run their meetings and the opportunities for the community to speak. Northern Beaches Council has proposed new forum arrangements for the community through a Code of Meeting Practice. The adoption of this Code is awaiting the consideration of a recission motion at the 17 February 2026 council meeting. As such no public forum can be held before the February council meeting.

This has been edited, with the same Notice and a date change - to 17 March 2026 - meaning a whole quarter of 'muzzling' or 'silencing' has been effected, as mooted in the Northern Beaches Council meeting of February 2018 - residents state.

Motion to Restore Residents Voice to before Meetings

At the December 16 2025 council meeting Cr Glanville, Cr Harvey, Cr Giltinan, Cr De Luca, Cr Singh and Cr Korzy voted against the council Draft Code of Meeting Practice.

Cr Bingham, Cr Williams, Cr Hrnjak, Cr Hackman, Cr Beaugeard, Cr Robins, Cr Dillon and Cr Heins voted for it which meant this was carried, 6 to 8.

Manly representative Cr. Grattan had been granted a leave of absence for the December meeting. 

The motion tabled that to be rescinded is:

That Council:

1. Adopt the Northern Beaches Council Code of Meeting Practice 2025 (Code) at Attachment 1, with the Code to come into effect on 1 January 2026, subject to the following amendments:

a. Delete the following clauses: 
i. 11.5, 11.6, 11.7 and 11.8

b. Add the following clause:
i. 11.5 All voting at council meetings, (including meetings that are closed to the public), must be recorded in the minutes of meetings with the names of councillors who voted for and against each motion or amendment (including the use of the casting vote) being recorded.

2. Establish a monthly community engagement forum, separate from the public forum referred to in clause 4 of the Code of Meeting Practice, to be held on the same evening as that public forum, for Councillors to hear from the members of the public on items not on the Council meeting agenda, on a trial basis for 6 months.

3. Note its opinion that the amendments to the draft Code are not substantial and it may adopt the amended draft Code without public exhibition as its code of meeting practice.

In the event the rescission motion is carried, the proposed alternate motion is:

That Council:

1.  Adopt the Northern Beaches Council Code of Meeting Practice 2025 (Code) at Attachment 1, with the Code to come into effect on 1 January 2026 with the exception of: 

a. A1.2 The public forum will be held in Council Chambers from 6.00pm 7 days prior to an ordinary meeting of the Council change so it now reads:

The Public Forum for items on the agenda will be held in the Council Chambers, prior to an Ordinary Meeting of Council from 6.00pm and close strictly at 6.45pm. 

b. Delete the non-mandatory clause that provides an option for the chairperson to be granted authorisation to expel any person, including any Councillor from a Council or committee meeting.

c. Replace 14 days with 8 days, being:

3.10 A Councillor may give notice of any business they wish to be considered by the Council at its next ordinary meeting by way of notice of motion. To be included on the agenda of the meeting, the notice of motion must be in writing and must be submitted by 12 noon 8 days before the meeting is to be held.

d. All voting at Council meetings (including meetings that are closed to the public) must be recorded in the minutes of meetings noting the names of Councillors who voted for and against each motion or amendment (including the use of the casting vote). 

2. Note its opinion that the amendments to the draft Code are not substantial and it may adopt the amended draft Code without public exhibition as its code of meeting practice.

3. Staff prepare options for open public forums to be held separately to Council meetings to be presented to the first scheduled Council meeting in 2026; these should include possibilities for up to 5 forums per year, where residents can advocate to Councillors on topics of interest or concern.  

The matter listed for consideration in the 17 February 2026 council meeting agenda, has now been deferred to March, and still, even if passed, excludes the former Public Address [3.].

Add-ins the day before
Residents have also pointed out that moving a Public Forum and removing the Public Address from prior to council meetings does not allow late add ins to be spoken on.

The four other Additional Information items in relation to agenda items, and dated as being added in on February 16 2026 in the council documents, were:

Additional information in respect of Item 8.3 Quarterly Review:
1.The budget rephasing which provides for a $3.2 million additional allocation to road resheeting is estimated to result in just under 1.5km of roads being resurfaced. In addition to that, heavy patching of various sizes will occur on a number of streets to repair localised defects. Some works will likely commence in March however the majority of these works will be completed in the final quarter of this Financial Year (April to June).
2Parking fines income totalled $4.42 million as at 31 December 2025, exceeding the year‑to‑date forecast of $3.80 million. Given the volatility of parking fines revenue, Council adopts a conservative approach when forecasting this income stream.

Additional information in respect of Item 8.5 Monthly Investment Report – December 2025:
1. Council expects to earn $5.2 million in unrestricted interest income in 2025/26, which is already allocated in the budget. This is considered general revenue along with ‘ordinary rates’, the financial assistance grant and other untied income sources. Together they form the funding source for most of Council’s services, loan repayments and the majority of the capital renewal program.

Additional information in respect of Item 9.1 Financial Assistance – Northern Beaches Women’s Shelter:
1.. Provision has been made in the draft 2026/27 budget to continue funding at current levels plus CPI should Council determine to continue the program that funds the Northern Beaches Women’s Shelter.

Ingleside Planning Proposal
As well as a fourth, a letter (copy attached - dated Feb. 16 2026) received from the proponent requesting on February 16 asking the council defer consideration of the Ingleside Planning Proposal. The letter suggest deferral would provide an opportunity to respond to issues raised in the Council officers’ report.

The councils Planning and Place department pointed out :
'The Minister for Planning’s 2024 Statement of Expectations Order requires councils to decide whether they support a proponent‑led planning proposal within the benchmark timeframes set out in the LEP Making Guideline. These timeframes aim to ensure planning proposals progress efficiently and provide certainty for both the proponent and the community. In this case, the benchmark timeframe expired shortly before Christmas 2025.

Atop that, the February 16 add in states council officers have been in regular contact with the proponent as detailed in the Council report.  In October 2025, the council wrote to the proponent outlining key issues and offered a partial refund of fees should the Proposal be withdrawn. The proponent chose to proceed and later submitted additional technical reports.

The February 16 Additional Information of the council agenda also stated:

'For the reasons outlined in the officers’ report, it is recommended Council not progress the planning proposal.  Should Council support the officer’s recommendation, the proponent may:
  • Request a review by the Sydney North District Planning Panel, or
  • Lodge a new planning proposal with Council in the future seeking to address the matters raised.'
The proponent may also choose, now, to go straight past the council to the State Government and test out the SSD pathway.

The NSW Government is using State Significant Development (SSD) pathways, managed by the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA), to accelerate large-scale housing projects, typically exceeding $60 million in capital investment. This process bypasses local councils for planning approvals, directly involving the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure to speed up delivery. 

Through the newly established Housing Delivery Authority (HDA), the state can fast-track large-scale residential projects (typically over $60 million in Greater Sydney) and concurrently rezone land to facilitate higher density, such as turning low-density (R2) areas into medium-density zones. 

The planning reforms enable the State Significant Development (SSD) pathways for housing to override local council zonings, allowing for increased density and rezoning, particularly within 800m–1200m of transport hubs. The B-line qualifies Mona Vale and most suburbs south of there for this.

No Voice for Residents
As can be seen above, Mosman Council has retained the time and place where questions may be asked or suggestions publicly put on record, (Public Address), and Items on its agendas, (Public Forum), are directly prior to council meetings.

Those now living under the Coalition NSW Government forcibly imposed Northern Beaches Council are now 'muzzled' through its passing in December 2026 of that 2018 first draft version of 'hearing from residents', they state, and will be for at least the whole of the first quarter of 2026. 

''They've effectively banned residents voices...'' one email stated this past week, ''... which they had wanted to do since they got to take over Pittwater again. Not that they listen to anyone anyway - every 'consultation' is actually a statement of intent, which can be gamed to fulfil the wants of a few over the rights of the everyone else.'' 

Pittwater Residents group Protect Pittwater, which is working to restore Pittwater Council, outside the February 2026 NBC meeting against the silencing of community voices and the sale of a Pittwater Council asset bought by the ratepayers of Pittwater, some wondering if they may be breaking the law by doing so. Photo supplied