What the council is working on
Recent deliveries, what's underway now, and what's planned next — drawn from the council's own plans, budgets and project pages. We report what the council has publicly said it's doing; every item links to its source.
The council's stated direction
Hawkesbury's direction is set out in its Community Strategic Plan 'Our Hawkesbury 2045' (endorsed June 2025) and a Delivery Program 2025–2029 with an annual Operational Plan and budget, with continued flood recovery and resilience and long-term financial and asset sustainability as recurring themes.
The council manages local roads, waste, libraries, parks and planning across a large, largely rural north-western Sydney LGA on the flood-prone Hawkesbury-Nepean river system, anchored by Windsor and Richmond. Its Delivery Program is the elected council's statement of commitment for its term.
The council's Asset Management Strategy 2025–2035 identified an asset-renewal shortfall it estimated at about $99.1 million, projected to grow without additional funding; an IPART-approved Special Rate Variation (8.66%/yr for four years from 2026–27) is earmarked for infrastructure renewal, chiefly roads.
Underway now
Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley flood evacuation road resilience
Planning underway; state/federal funding committedA NSW/Australian Government program (with the council as a partner) to plan around 100 infrastructure improvements — raising sections of road, improving drainage and widening shoulders, plus a proposed bridge structure — so evacuation routes across the flood-prone Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley stay open longer during floods.
Source: Transport for NSW — Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Flood Evacuation Road Resilience Program
Special Rate Variation for infrastructure renewal
Approved 2 Jun 2026; applies from 1 Jul 2026 for 4 yearsIPART approved a Special Rate Variation of 8.66% per year for four years (cumulative ~39.4%), inclusive of the rate peg, to address an asset-renewal shortfall the council estimated at about $99.1 million. Every dollar raised above the rate peg must go to asset renewal, chiefly roads, with annual reporting required.
FOGO deferral & waste-to-resource trial
12-month trial from Jan 2026; FOGO deferred to 1 Jul 2029The council has deferred its transition to a combined food-and-garden (FOGO) service to 1 July 2029, and is running a 12-month trial (from January 2026) with biotechnology company ARC Ento Tech on a black-soldier-fly waste-to-resource facility as an alternative approach to food-organics processing.
Source: Waste Management Review — NSW council defers FOGO transition to focus on waste trial