Bathurst's road renewal spending fell from $9.8m to $1.1m in 2025/26, says a council report on its draft accounts

Roads: less renewing, more repairing

The draft statements came to the 16 September ordinary meeting as item 8.3.6, with a report from council staff explaining them. Councillors voted 9-0 to refer them to the Audit Office of NSW (resolution ORD2026-251). The report is direct about roads. On the general fund's renewals ratio it says: In particular, road renewal expenditure declined from $9.8 million in FY2025 to $1.1 million in FY2026.

$9.8 millionRoad renewal spending, 2024/25

$1.1 millionRoad renewal spending, 2025/26 (draft, unaudited)

The money did not simply vanish from the roads. Renewal, in the statements' own definition, is the replacement and/or refurbishment of existing assets to an equivalent capacity/performance, and it is capital work. Repairs and maintenance are an operating expense. The report's comparison with the original budget shows materials and services coming in $10.7 million over, and gives the reason as Additional road repair & maintenance costs diverted from capital renewal based on requirements. The draft income statement shows materials and services at $53.54 million against an original budget of $42.81 million. Year on year, the report says, materials and services rose $2.2 million largely reflecting increased roads maintenance.

So in 2025/26 Bathurst spent more patching roads and much less renewing them, and the report spells out where that leads:

The continuing decline in the ratio indicates an increasing gap between Council's expenditure on asset renewal and the annual consumption of its asset base. If sustained, this will contribute to growth in the infrastructure renewal backlog and place greater pressure on future capital funding requirements.

The draft statements' report on infrastructure assets puts the roads' backlog in dollars. Bringing the council's road assets (sealed and unsealed roads, bridges, footpaths and other road assets) to a satisfactory standard would cost an estimated $64.32 million, out of $165.44 million across all its assets. For roads, the asset management plans called for $26.69 million of maintenance in 2025/26; actual road maintenance was $10.87 million.

Three yardsticks, and why two of them moved

The draft statements report three asset performance indicators. Bathurst is below benchmark on all three, but the reasons differ, and the report says so.

Indicator	2024	2025	2026
Renewals benchmark >100%	48.86%	67.89%	19.41%
Backlog benchmark <2%	10.97%	10.81%	9.45%
Maintenance benchmark >100%	86.82%	61.26%	33.47%

Renewals is the one that moved on spending. In 2025/26 the council renewed $5.40 million of buildings and infrastructure against $27.82 million of depreciation, so the ratio fell from 67.89 per cent to 19.41 per cent. The report ties the fall to roads.

Backlog looks better, but the report credits the method: the improvement was predominantly due to a reassessment of the infrastructure backlog calculation methodology, which now weighs condition ratings as well as age, particularly for roads, bridges and footpaths.

Maintenance fell partly because the yardstick grew. The report says Asset maintenance requirements were reassessed for FY2026 considering under maintained assets such as the TAFE buildings. In the draft statements, required maintenance on buildings is $25.28 million against $1.43 million actually spent. The report still calls the decline a growing gap between required and actual maintenance, with a risk of higher renewal or rehabilitation costs in future years.

A better year on paper

The headline numbers did improve. The consolidated result before capital grants and contributions went from a $9.25 million deficit in 2023/24 to $1.81 million in surplus in 2024/25 and $10.99 million in 2025/26. The general fund went from a $4.55 million deficit before capital grants to a $4.66 million surplus. The report singles out three items in the result.

Operating result

$26.75 million, all funds (2024/25: $15.58 million)

Before capital grants

$10.99 million, all funds (2024/25: $1.81 million)

Land and asset sales

$12.75 million of net gains included (2024/25: $4.86 million)

Fair value

$0.86 million accounting adjustment on investments included

Grant paid early

$7.1 million of the 2026/27 Financial Assistance Grant paid in June 2026, 80% of the grant (June 2025: $4.2 million, 50%)

Status

Draft, referred to the Audit Office of NSW on 16 September 2026; may change during the audit

The report's own conclusion is plain:

After excluding these items, the General Fund remains in an underlying operating deficit position.

It does not say how large the deficit is, or how the land-sale gains split between the funds. By our arithmetic, taking the $12.75 million of sale gains and the $0.86 million fair value adjustment out of the all-funds result before capital grants leaves about $2.62 million in deficit, and that is with the water and sewer funds' combined $6.34 million surplus still in it.

More cash, very little of it free

Cash and investments rose $34.08 million to $114.94 million. The report says $105.43 million of that, 92 per cent, was externally restricted for specific purposes and is not available to fund Council's general operations. Unrestricted cash rose from $4.15 million to $9.50 million, which the report calls an improvement in liquidity. Part of that rise is the early grant: the June 2026 advance was $2.9 million larger than the year before.

Cash and investments at 30 June 2026: $105.43 million externally restricted, $9.50 million unrestricted, of $114.94 million

Internal allocations set by council: $7.16 million carry over works (Financial Assistance Grant), $2.29 million everything else, of $9.45 million

And most of the unrestricted cash is already earmarked. The report lists internal allocations of $9.45 million, set by council resolution and changeable by council, against unrestricted cash of $9.50 million. The biggest is $7.16 million for carry over works funded from the Financial Assistance Grant.

What comes next

These are draft numbers. The report says they may be subject to change during the audit process, and that once the audit is done the statements will go on public exhibition for submissions when they are formally presented to council. As at 8 October, the council's minutes and agendas page listed no papers for an October ordinary meeting.

The accounts also feed the council's bigger money question. In February councillors allocated $300,000 for outside consultants to run an options analysis for the Beyond 2026 financial sustainability strategy and to evaluate an SRV to be included as one of the options, a special rate variation being a council's way to lift rates above the peg. The same 16 September minutes record that Ernst & Young presented its draft findings at a councillor briefing on 24 August, that nothing had yet been paid, and that the final report will come to council later this year.

1. 18 February 2026Council allocates $300,000 for consultants on the Beyond 2026 strategy, including evaluating a special rate variation as one option.
2. 30 June 2026Financial year ends. Road renewal spending for the year: $1.1 million.
3. 24 August 2026Ernst & Young presents draft findings of the Financial Sustainability Review at a councillor briefing.
4. 16 September 2026Draft statements referred to the Audit Office of NSW, 9-0 (ORD2026-251).
5. After the auditStatements presented to council and placed on public exhibition for submissions.
6. Later this yearFinal Ernst & Young report presented to council.

For 2026/27, the draft statements' rates schedule applies a 3.10 per cent increase to general rate income, the same as the final rate peg for Bathurst in our rate peg story.

Our view

Labelled as opinion. Credit where it is due: the staff report does not let a $26.75 million headline speak for itself. It names the land sales, the early grant and the accounting adjustment, and says the general fund is still in underlying deficit. The number that matters most for residents is the smallest one: $1.1 million of road renewal in a year, down from $9.8 million. Shifting money into repairs may have been the right call for the roads that needed it that year, and the report says it was done based on requirements. But one year of patching instead of renewing is a cost deferred, and the council's own staff say so. Council has resolved to consult the community on the options from the Ernst & Young review, with a special rate variation evaluated as one of them. Ratepayers should see, alongside those options, how and when the council plans to get road renewal back toward the depreciation it is meant to match.

Sources

1. Bathurst Regional Council, Minutes, Ordinary Meeting of Council, 16 September 2026 (PDF, 180 pages, read 8 October 2026): item 8.3.6, Annual Financial Statements 2025/2026, the staff report and resolution ORD2026-251 (pages 112 to 121), and item 8.3.7, Financial Sustainability Strategy: Beyond 2026 update (pages 122 to 124).
2. Bathurst Regional Council, Agenda attachments, Ordinary Meeting of Council, 16 September 2026 (PDF, 884 pages, about 128MB, read 8 October 2026): attachment 8.3.6.1, draft Annual Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2026, including the income statement (page 694), the permissible income for general rates schedule (page 769) and the report on infrastructure assets (pages 770 to 773).
3. Bathurst Regional Council, Minutes and Agendas (web page, checked 8 October 2026): the most recent ordinary meeting listed is 16 September 2026.

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