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
Narrandera's direction is set out in its Community Strategic Plan 2025–40, a Delivery Program 2025–29 and an annual Operational Plan and Budget, currently shaped by a two-year special rate variation that has now finished, the works program it funds, and the mandated move to a three-bin FOGO waste service by 2030.
The council groups everything it does into five outcome areas — Our Leadership, Our Community, Our Environment, Our Economy and Our Infrastructure — and reports against them in its Operational Plan and Delivery Program progress reports. It manages more than 1,500 kilometres of roads across a 4,116 km² shire, along with water and sewer in Narrandera, waste, parks and pools, the Narrandera-Leeton Airport, libraries and planning.
IPART approved a permanent special variation of 48.1% cumulative across 2024–25 and 2025–26; the council told IPART it was needed to cover costs outpacing revenue growth, maintain service levels and start the Narrandera CBD stormwater duplication project. The 2026–27 Operational Plan reverts to the ordinary 3.3% rate peg and sets out a separate SV Works Program — $200,000 for open space and recreation renewals (Marie Bashir Park irrigation, LED sportsground lighting at Henry Mathieson Oval, playground renewals at Grong Grong and Narrandera, sportsground walking-track reseal) and $380,524 for local roads (footpath renewals, Weerona Road gravel resheet and Grong Grong River Road rehabilitation).
- Narrandera Shire Council — Integrated planning and reporting (CSP 2025–40, Delivery Program, LTFP) · Aug 2026
- Narrandera Shire Council — Community Strategic Plan 2025-40 · 2025–2040
- Narrandera Shire Council — Operational Plan and Budget 2026-27 · 2026–27
- Narrandera Shire Council — Projects and works · Aug 2026
Underway now
Special Variation works program
SV applied 2024–25 and 2025–26; works program continues in 2026–27The permanent special rate variation IPART approved in May 2024 (48.1% cumulative over two years) funds a dedicated works program that the council lists separately in its Operational Plan. The 2026–27 program comprises $200,000 of open space and recreation renewals — Marie Bashir Park irrigation renewal, LED sportsground lighting at Henry Mathieson Oval, playground renewals at Grong Grong and Narrandera parks and a sportsground walking-track reseal — and $380,524 of local roads work, including footpath renewals, the Weerona Road gravel resheet and Grong Grong River Road rehabilitation. Council's stated driver for the variation also included the Narrandera CBD stormwater duplication project.
Source: Narrandera Shire Council — Operational Plan and Budget 2026-27 (SV Works Program)
Barellan sewerage scheme
Listed as a current council projectCouncil's projects register lists a Barellan sewerage scheme designed to provide a modern reticulated sewerage system for the village of Barellan, replacing on-site septic tank systems. It sits alongside the Safe and Secure Water Program page and the Integrated Water Cycle Management Plan, which was placed on public exhibition for 28 days.
Three-year roadworks program 2024–27
2024–2027Council maintains a rolling three-year roadworks program across the shire's 1,500-plus kilometres of road, currently covering 2024–27. The 2026–27 Operational Plan breaks the capital works program into new road seals, rural and urban re-seal programs, a gravel re-sheet program and maintenance grading, and commits to finalising a road hierarchy service review.
Planned / committed
Move from a two-bin to a three-bin FOGO service
Completion date 1 January 2030Narrandera currently runs a two-bin kerbside service (weekly red general waste, fortnightly yellow recycling). Council has a standing project to add a green-lidded food-and-garden-organics bin, to meet the NSW Government's mandated FOGO rollout. Its project page states planning is underway and gives a completion date of 1 January 2030; until then food scraps go in the red bin.
Source: Narrandera Shire Council — Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) project