Councils
What did my council actually decide, and what does it cost me? Two active city councils sit at the core of this beat: Bathurst Regional, whose ordinary meeting falls on the third Wednesday of the month, and Orange City, on the InfoCouncil cycle. Around them are the rural shires of Cabonne, Blayney and Oberon and the Lachlan Valley councils at Cowra, Forbes, Parkes, Weddin and Lachlan.
We read the business papers, minutes and mayoral reports themselves, not the press-release summary, and set out the decisions on the merits: the budgets and rate variations, the major projects, the planning calls and the money. Councillors and mayors appear through their public roles and the public record.
Councils
Blayney gets 4.7 per cent for 2026-27 and Orange 3.0, against a state median of 3.7. IPART nets population growth against supplementary valuations, and for the three cities the new development already on their rolls cancelled the growth out.
Councils
A draft policy on 28 days’ exhibition would categorise farmland on dominant use, commercial purpose and profit motive rather than zoning, with five new subcategories. A councillor has already flagged that the profit test may conflict with the environmental category. Submissions closed at 5pm on Wednesday 26 August 2026.
3 August 2026
Councils
The rebuilt inlet works at Orange’s sewage treatment plant are sized for a population of up to 60,000. On the council’s own published figures the LGA is 44,244 growing at 0.6 per cent, which is roughly half a century of headroom. Stormwater screening nearly tripled, and ratepayers funded it through sewer charges rather than a grant.
30 July 2026
Councils
Council will operate the Orange Regional Planetarium in house, and has exhibited proposed prices: $20 an adult, $15 a child, $10 a student, $55 a family. Plus the naming of the Conservatorium and the Mary Turner Recital Hall.
28 July 2026
Councils
Six decisions from Bathurst Regional Council’s 15 July ordinary meeting, read from the council’s own report: the TAFE heritage precinct renewal framework, a draft flood study going to exhibition, the Ernst & Young finance review, a refreshed bushfire map, dams at capacity, and a homelessness-event fee waiver.
24 July 2026