At the Lane Cove Council’s June Meeting, Lane Cove Councillors will be asked to vote on the Lane Cove Council’s Delivery Program, Operational Plans, Budget and Draft Fees (the Budget Papers).
LCC Budget Papers must be approved before the start of each financial year.
Rates
Lane Cove Council intends to set the 2025/2026 general rate rise at 3.9 per cent, effective 1 July 2025.
This is good news considering several other Sydney and Regional Councils have had to apply to IPART for a special rate variation.
It looks like a higher rate rise may take place in the 2026/2027 financial year.
Lane Cove Council noted in the draft 2025/2026 Draft Delivery Programme and Operational Plan:
The 2025/26 Budget has proven difficult to balance. Despite an exhaustive review of all income and expenditure allocations, Council is projecting a budget deficit of $598k for 2025/26. Longer term forecasts indicate budget deficits will be ongoing without some form of strategic intervention.
Council is finding it increasingly difficult to generate sufficient recurrent income to invest in its assets at a level necessary to ensure they are maintained at a satisfactory level. Council is also experiencing difficulties generating recurrent income to maintain existing services at levels the community has come to expect. One of the options that may be explored is a special rate variation application which, if supported by the Council, would not come into effect until the 2026/27 financial year.”
Domestic Waste Fee for Residential Properties
Lane Cove Council provides the following bins for an annual fee.
- 1 x 80L red lidded general waste bin (weekly)
- 1 x 120L yellow lidded container recycling bin (fortnightly)
- 1 x 120L blue lidded paper and cardboard recycling bin (fortnightly)
- 1 x 240L green lidded vegetation bin (fortnightly)
- 4 x FREE bulky waste clean up collections per year
The annual fee for your green, red and yellow bins will now be $637.65. This is an increase of $76.75
Lane Cove Domestic Waste Management Annual Fee - Residential Propeties
| Year | Annual Fee | Increase |
|---|---|---|
| 2025/2026 | $637.65 | $76.75 |
| 2024/2025 | $560.90 | $62.90 |
| 2023/2024 | $498.00 | $23.50 |
| 2022/2023 | $474.50 | $8.90 |
| 2021/2022 | $465.60 | $9.10 |
| 2020/2021 | $445.00 | $11.50 |
In 2024/2025 Willoughby City Council charged $640 as their annual domestic waste charge. They provide only three bulky waste pick ups per year.
Mosman City Council is often cited as having the highest domestic waste charges. For 2024/2025 Mosman City Council charged:
- $457 for a 80-litre domestic bin
- $750 for a 120-litre domestic bin
- $100 for the yellow bin
- $74 for the green bin.
For the 2025-2026 financial year, the council plans a 8% increase, and 6% annual increase for subsequent years, according to the MOSPLAN Long Term Financial Plan.
Trees
Are you looking to remove or prune 1 -3 trees on your property- the application fee has increased to $150.00. Note that the Lane Cove Council now applies fees for a tree inspection when a tree is overhanging a house – this has increased from zero fees in 2023.
Dog Walking
Is your dog walked by a local Dog Walking Company? The fee for dog walkers to use Lane Cove Parks is proposed to be $2 400 (this is the highest of any council in Sydney and only one other council imposes this fee).
Car Parking Fees
The fees and charges also include Car Parking Fees for Council-Owned Car Parks in Lane Cove Village – parking rates have increased slightly (see below)
What Happens Next?
The Lane Cove Council will vote to endorse the 2025/2026 fees and charges at its June 2005 council meeting.
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 alerting you to Lane Cove Council's Delivery Program, Operational Plans, Budget and Draft Fees (the Budget Papers) and asking for your comments.){kind=link}
LCC draft Delivery Program & Operational Plan dated 04/25
Assets renewal is $6.1 MM out of $70.2MM total expenditure or merely 8.7%
Business economy spending is $4.4MM, only 6.3%. (pages 95-96)
What is the Council “Reserve Movement” for “Operational Expenditure” of $40,000,000 in 2025/26?
Why is Council drawing down on its reserves so heavily? What is this going to fund?
Property acquisition in 2025/26 is $28,000,000 for “open recreation space”, funded from s7.11/VPA income from development levies. What about roads, car parking, etc? This represents approx 56% of all capital works. (page 127)
Some of it might be better spent on fixing the reliability of the escalators in the Market Square carpark, to help in particular our senior citizens.
Council bemoans its future ability to fund infrastructure renewal/maintenance & is overseeing the 55%+ overspend build of a $81,000,000 sports/recreation centre (initially budgetted at a mere $52,000,000) & wants to spend $28,000,000 on green space acquisition.
Seemingly, the cost of running the Council is obfuscated for 2025/26 by the injection of the $40,000,000 reserve drawdown, some circa $31,000,000 higher than other projected years. This just happens to zero out the usual $30+,000,000 of running cost. Running cost usually runs at about 40+% of total costs.
General rates are said to rise by 3.9%, as controlled by IPART, the independent pricing regulator. However, general domestic garbage waste charge is rising 13.7%, $637.65 from $560.90 p.a. (page 206). So the overall total rate increase is effectively around 7%.
Why is “climate resilience” advocated to move to “climate emergency”? What’s the justification for this & what is this? What are the ramifications of this change? (page 42)
LCC claims to be on the side of local business, page 189 shows annual charges per square metre of between $475 and $874 for sidewalk table areas.
Finally, the overall budget shows a $598K deficit, there would seem to be plenty of scope to claw this back. Council are also sowing the seeds for ‘special rate variation applications’ in the future to fund the needs apparently identified by the community consultations, such as ‘Liveable Lane Cove 2035’.
https://ecouncil.lanecove.nsw.gov.au/TRIM/documents_TE/1001468943/TRIM_Draft%20LTFP%20-%202025-26_1890436.PDF see page 20
There has never been any caveats about what this Liveable Lane Cove 2035 wish list might cost we ratepayers. All this at a time of record intakes from s7.11 / VPA levies on developers, apparently to be spent on sports stadiums & green space land acquisitions. All rate payers must remember that Council is not responsible for major infrastructure such as water, sewerage, electricity & main roads. These are all the remit of the State Government. So what exactly are the development levies being spent on that add value & reduce/control costs of service delivery.
Council must learn to live within the community expectations of a fiscally responsible budget that delivers rates levies that mirror inflation & wage movement & nothing greater.
Draft 2025-26 Delivery Program Operational Plan – April 2025
Draft Long Term Financial Plan – April 2025