Tonight on Council – 13/10/2026
Council is shaping up to see some major items up for consideration before the end of the year, and this meeting seems to be easing into being weightier than recent months, and containing several councillor-raised motions for the first time in a while. Get comfy, this is a long one.
Item 4.1 – Mayor Webb Mayoral Minute – CMAA Research Project – Valuing Australian Country Music
Kicking off the meeting, Mayor Webb is raising a Mayoral Minute requesting that councillors approve a $3,500 contribution to the Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA) towards continuing a research project into the economic and cultural value of country music in Australia, at CMAA’s request.
This is similar to a Mayoral Minute raised by Mayor Webb back at our 17 December 2024 meeting to contribute $4,500 to support the research project being undertaken with the aim to research the growth in popularity of the country genre globally since the COVID pandemic.
At the time Mayor Webb wrote that a similar project was undertaken in 2019 and the subsequent report was considered instrumental in providing a powerful advocacy and lobbying tool for the country music industry and was influential in gaining several election promises and later follow-through in funding from John Graham MLC, Minister for Music and the Night-time Economy, once the new Labor State Government was elected. This Minute similarly argues that the 2024–25 report resulted in the Minister making several trips to Tamworth to deliver on those election promises to support the state’s music industry and Tamworth in particular as the nation’s Country Music Capital.
The supporting commentary advises that the aim of the 2026 project would be to confirm and attempt to quantify that country music has continued to grow in popularity and market performance, which in turn would be a tool to back up calls for regulatory support from State and Federal Government. And that TRC’s contribution would see a series of questions specific to the Country Music Festival included in the data collection, which we can leverage for our own internal management of the festival.
The same as last time this came up, I think this would be a worthwhile investment for TRC to make. The arts are an often-overlooked sector of the Australian economy. Before the pandemic hit in 2019–20 cultural and creative activities contributed 122 billion to the Australian economy. More data existing on the surge of popularity of a music genre that Tamworth has strong historical ties to would help the case for further investment from other levels of government in the arts and cultural industries in general, but especially in the country genre.
Item 5.1 – Cr Ryan Brooke Notice of Motion – Banning Smart Glasses In Council Facilities
I’ll be moving a motion at this meeting that deals with something that’s been popping up more and more in the community’s inbox to me lately: smart or ‘pervert’ glasses. These are the camera-fitted glasses that, unlike physically holding up a camera or phone, often can record without any indication to people being recorded that they are on video. Because of this, and because of how accessible they’ve become recently being sold for less than $100 at major retailers (although as recently as late last week Kmart pulled them from shelves in response to community pressure), you’ve likely seen recent media and discourse about privacy risks they pose.
I think for councils in particular we need to be proactive about the prevalence of this emerging technology since we manage various public facilities where covert filming could be nefariously used, like our pools, sporting change rooms, public toilets and playgrounds. And I think our responsibility to provide and operate these facilities comes with a responsibility to make sure people feel safe using them.
And evidently, I’m not alone on that. Both from the number of residents that have contacted me about this locally and from the number of other councils across the country that have already acted on this. The Attorney-General has also publicly encouraged councils across the country to take action on this, so I think it’s a conversation Tamworth needs to catch up on.
I believe we should ban smart glasses. But I’m also cautious about getting this right. Because at the same time, it’s important to recognise that smart glasses and other wearable technologies can be groundbreaking accessibility aids for people living with disabilities, such as those who are vision-impaired or experiencing hearing loss. Any restriction we consider putting in place needs to take into account residents who rely on this technology to assist them with daily activities, and to avoid inadvertent consequences that may prevent them from utilising this technology.
What I’m asking for is a report that looks at what the legal and operational considerations of restricting smart glasses and similar covert-recording devices in facilities is, and importantly, what potential unintended consequences might be for residents who use this technology for accessibility reasons.
Item 5.2 – Cr Rodda Questions with Notice – DA2025-011 (Lot 500 DP 1313647) Maas Commercial Eagle View Pty Ltd
Back at our 10 December 2024 meeting councillors approved a development application for the construction of child care centre at 9 Wedgetail Road, Moore Creek. As Cr Rodda states, the approved development included Condition 61(a), relating to the provision of an acoustic fence. The construction and/or characteristics of the acoustic fence have been the subject of significant concern and consternation among adjoining residents. Because of this, Cr Rodda has submitted the following questions with notice:
1. Requests for amendments or variations
Details of any requests made by the developer, or on the developer’s behalf, seeking an amendment, variation or modification to any condition of consent imposed under DA2025-0011, including copies of any relevant correspondence, applications, plans, reports or other documentation submitted by email, letter or any other formal means.
2. Nature and justification of requested changes
Details of the nature of any requested amendment, variation or modification to the approved conditions, together with copies of any correspondence, reports, assessments, plans or other documentation provided in support of such requests.
3. Council consideration and approval
Details of any approval, determination, authorisation or other action taken by Council officers including councillors in response to any request to amend, vary or modify the conditions of consent for DA2025-0011, including identification of the relevant officer, officers or councillors and copies of any documentation recording or evidencing that decision or authorisation.
4. Basis for any amendment or variation
The basis and justification upon which Council, any Council officer or councillor acting under delegated authority, authorised or otherwise permitted any amendment, variation or modification to the conditions of consent for DA2025-0011, including the statutory, planning or administrative authority relied upon.
5. Condition 61(a)
Details of any changes to, departures from, or purported variations of Condition 61(a), including the date on which any such change was made, the person or authority responsible for approving it, and the documents upon which that decision was based.
Answer provided:
Council’s records indicate that no application has been received seeking to amend, revise, modify, or otherwise alter the conditions of consent associated with DA2025-0011 since the consent was granted.
Accordingly, the conditions of consent currently remain as originally approved, and Council has not received any request under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 to modify that consent.
Environment and Planning
Item 6.1 – Tamworth Regional Council Heritage Working Group Meeting Minutes – 4 September 2026 (Including 2026/2027 Heritage Assistance Grant Assessment)
This item asks Councillors to receive and note the minutes of the Heritage Working Group’s meeting on 4 September, and to adopt its recommendation to allocate $48,500 in funding across eighteen properties through this year’s Heritage Assistance Fund, which is a programme where residents can apply to council for grants to help maintain the heritage value of items or building structures.
This year twenty-six applications were received compared to just twelve last year. That jump in applications is a good problem to have, but it also meant the available funding pool of $48,760 couldn’t stretch to cover everyone, with the Heritage Working Group and Council’s Heritage Advisor having to work through each application and prioritise accordingly.
Eighteen of the twenty-six applications were successful, with funding recommended ranging from $1,000 up to $5,000 depending on the project and how far the requested amount could realistically go. The properties recommended for funding span right across the region, taking in Tamworth, Nundle, Manilla, Barraba and Bendemeer, and cover the sort of maintenance work you’d expect to keep heritage buildings standing: roofing and guttering, repainting, brickwork and subsidence repairs, verandah restoration, and window and door work.
Eight applications missed out this time, with the Working Group’s reasoning essentially coming down to two things. In most cases it was simply a matter of limited funds needing to go to projects judged a higher conservation priority this round. The property at 1050 River Road, Bowling Alley Point, missed out specifically because that property has already received funding in each of the last two consecutive years, with the Working Group taking the view that other applicants should get a turn. Unsuccessful applicants aren’t locked out going forward and can reapply for the 2027–2028 round.
Since the full $48,760 wasn’t allocated, the recommendation is for any unspent funds to carry over into the 2027–2028 Heritage Assistance Fund rather than being lost, and for any funds that become available during the year through underspend or withdrawn applications to be redirected to three nominated priority projects in order: first to 152–154 Marius Street, then to 50 Strafford Street in Manilla, and finally to 6 Darling Street, with any top-up capped at what each of those applicants originally requested.
Item 6.2 – Tamworth Regional Local Environmental Plan 2010 – Amendment To Schedule 5 And The Heritage Map To Remove Heritage Item I513 “Lost Boy’s Grave (Bantry)” From Lot 121 DP 753839, 8 Den Mountain Road, Watsons Creek
This item asks Councillors to request the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure correct an error in the Tamworth Regional Local Environmental Plan 2010, by removing the heritage listing for the “Lost Boy’s Grave” from a property it was never actually located on.
The grave belongs to Kenny Northey, a local boy who went missing in July 1925, and it was first identified as a heritage item in the Parry Shire Community Heritage Study of 2002, which placed it on ‘Bantry’ at 8 Den Mountain Road, Watsons Creek. The property’s current owner has since raised concerns that this location was wrong, prompting council staff to investigate, which culminated in a site inspection on 14 August this year involving Council’s Heritage Advisor, the landowner of Bantry, the owners of the neighbouring property ‘Springvale’, and around fifteen members of Kenny Northey’s extended family.
GPS coordinates taken at the actual gravesite put it 158 metres from Bantry’s nearest boundary, and when those coordinates were plotted against Council’s mapping system and aerial photography, they landed on a separate parcel of Crown land, Lot 7004 DP 1029460, embedded within the Springvale property, roughly 133 metres from Bantry at the closest point. Photos taken on the day also matched those already held in Council’s Heritage Register. NSW Crown Lands has since confirmed that lot is a Crown Reserve specifically set aside for the preservation of graves, meaning the site has effectively been protected all along, just not correctly mapped.
Given all of that, the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has confirmed this can be handled as a minor administrative amendment under section 3.22 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, on the basis that correcting an error like this doesn’t carry any real environmental or land use impact. The removal from Bantry is really only half the job though and a separate planning proposal will be needed down the track to add the grave to Schedule 5 on its correct lot, and the report notes that future listing will also need to properly account for the fact that Lot 7004 contains a broader family cemetery, not just the one grave.
Infrastructure and Services
Item 7.1 – Waste And Resource Recovery Community Service Obligation Policy
This item asks Councillors to endorse a draft Waste and Resource Recovery Community Service Obligation Policy for public exhibition over twenty-eight days, with a further report to come back afterwards to consider submissions and bring the final policy forward for adoption.
The report states that the aim of the policy is to put a consistent, transparent framework around how TRC handles Community Service Obligations in its waste and resource recovery operations, essentially the instances where Council provides waste services on a basis other than standard commercial terms, for reasons of community benefit rather than cost recovery. The report gives a handful of examples of what this covers, including assistance for vulnerable residents, support for charitable organisations, community clean-up activities, resource recovery programmes, and waste management support following a disaster. Having a formal policy in place is meant to give these sorts of arrangements proper governance and accountability, rather than leaving them to be handled on an ad hoc basis, while still supporting the community and environmental outcomes they’re designed for.
Item 7.2 – 2026 Local Government NSW Environmental Symposium And Awards
This item has two parts: it lets Councillors know that the Jewry Street Causeway Removal project has been nominated for an award at this year’s LGNSW Environmental Symposium, and it asks Councillors to formally nominate which Councillors, if any, will attend.
The event itself is being held on Thursday, 3 December at the Aerial Function Centre, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, built around the theme of connecting, learning and celebrating the future of sustainability. The day runs as a proper programme rather than just an awards lunch, opening with two concurrent learning streams on leading council projects, followed by networking around poster board case studies from selected entrants, before wrapping up with the awards ceremony itself over a celebratory lunch.
The project up for recognition by TRC is the removal of the old Jewry Street Causeway on the Peel River, a low-level crossing that had become redundant for transport purposes but was still acting as a barrier to fish passage, disrupting natural river flows and contributing to erosion and sediment build-up.
Back at our 22 July 2025 meeting, rather than patch it up, Councillors opted to remove the structure entirely and restore a more natural river channel, work that also included riverbank rehabilitation, revegetation, and bollards and traffic measures to stop unauthorised vehicle access into the park. It’s also worth noting that this resolution of council came after a Notice of Motion by Cr Sutherland at our 27 May 2025 meeting for TRC to allocate resources towards achieving the action items identified in the Yarriin Culture, Fish and Flows Galala Case Study being done in partnership with Kamilaroi/Gamilaroi community representatives and the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.
The Manager of Environment and Sustainability and an Environmental Scientist from the Water and Waste Directorate are already planning to go. Beyond that, it’s open to Councillors to decide whether any Councillors attend too, noting that registration costs $295 per person, with estimated additional costs of up to $800 for return flights between Tamworth and Sydney and around $300 for overnight accommodation.
I know I’m considered to be the environment-focused councillor, but I intend to nominate Cr Sutherland given that the actions we are nominated for largely followed his notice of motion for Council to allocate resources to river health along the Peel.
More information about the Jewry Street Causeway project and Cr Sutherland’s Notice of Motion can be found at these respective previous business paper summary posts from myself:
https://ryanbrooke.au/tonight-on-council-27-05-2025/
https://ryanbrooke.au/tonight-on-council-22-07-2025/
Governance, Strategy and Finance
Item 8.1 – Disclosure Of Interest Returns 2025/2026
This item is a legally required one, asking Councillors to formally receive and note the Disclosure of Interest returns lodged by Councillors and designated persons (senior council staff), and to advise the Office of Local Government that this has been done.
Under section 440AAB of the Local Government Act and the Model Code of Conduct, any disclosure return lodged with the General Manager has to be tabled at a Council meeting as soon as practicable after it’s received. Copies of the unredacted returns have been presented to councillors in the confidential enclosures rather than the public business paper. Versions with Councillors’ and staff members’ personal information redacted can be found on TRC’s website, which I’ll link below for anyone who wants to look through it.
https://www.tamworth.nsw.gov.au/about/the-council/mayor-and-councillors
https://www.tamworth.nsw.gov.au/about/the-council/general-manager-and-senior-staff
Item 8.2 – Council Register Of Special Purpose Committees, Working Groups, External Boards And Organisations
This item asks Councillors to adopt an amended version of its register of committees, working groups, external boards and organisations for the next twelve months.
Changes have been made to remove The Murray-Darling Association in line with TRC’s withdrawal under the resolution from the Mayoral Minute at the 12 May meeting earlier this year. Precinct Committees have been added, following the resolution from the 16 December 2025 meeting to establish them, and the new Mara Ngali Partnership Committee has been added, following a resolution from the 8 September meeting. Beyond that, there are a few title changes to reflect internal staffing changes, updating references from the old Executive Manager – Strategy and Performance title to the now-current Executive Manager – Corporate Governance, and removing references to the Chief Financial Officer position.
The recommended motion also asks Councillors to approve that when a committee’s membership has changed as part of this update, that committee’s Terms of Reference be reviewed and brought back to Councillors for approval, so the governing documents stay aligned with who’s actually sitting on them.
This item stands out to me as the recommended motion is identical to the recommendation for Item 9.5 at the 12 November 2024 Council meeting where councillors were initially assigned to various committees “for the ensuing twelve-month term”. I went back and checked this 2024 motion because of that mention of that twelve-month term. Because we are now two years into the council term, and no full renewal of all council committees happened last year. The only committee that did see an item come to a council meeting to review councillor membership was the General Manager’s Performance Review Panel.
The General Manager’s Performance Review Panel currently consists of the Mayor of the day, the Deputy Mayor of the day, a Councillor nominated by the General Manager (which for the previous two years has been Cr Marc Sutherland), and a Councillor nominated by Councillors. In 2025 this was resolved to be Cr Rodda, but after an item came to Council at the 23 September 2025 meeting to renew membership of this committee, Cr Sharpham was instead nominated as the fourth councillor member on this committee.
It’s worth noting that for the previous two years Cr Rodda has moved that we instead make the General Manager’s Performance Review Panel a committee of the whole of which all councillors are members, but this has been voted down twice. I supported that call both times.
The recommendation for this item is to re-assign councillors to all existing committee positions with no variation.
Item 8.3 – Public Interest Disclosures And Code Of Conduct Complaints
This is Council’s annual reporting item on Public Interest Disclosures and Code of Conduct complaints, covering the period from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, as required under section 78 of the Public Interest Disclosures Regulation 2022.
On the Public Interest Disclosures side there were zero disclosures made by public officials and none received across any category, whether that’s corrupt conduct, maladministration, serious and substantial waste, government information contraventions, or local government pecuniary interest contraventions.
On Code of Conduct complaints, the report advises that TRC received one Councillor Code of Conduct complaint during 2025–2026. The report doesn’t go into detail on the nature or outcome of that complaint here, which is standard given the confidentiality that typically applies to individual conduct matters.
Item 8.4 – Appointment Of External Member To The Audit, Risk And Improvement Committee
This item asks Councillors to appoint Ms Rochelle White as an external independent member of the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee, for an initial four-year term starting on 21 October 2026.
Councils are required under section 428A of the Local Government Act to have an Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee, and TRC has run one since 2012 with three independent members, staggering their terms so the Committee doesn’t lose institutional knowledge all at once when a member moves on. That staggering is the reason this appointment is happening now, with Dr Meredith Caelli completing her term and resigning from the Committee this October, leaving a vacancy to be filled.
The report sets out a fairly detailed list of what’s expected of an independent member, covering things like a genuine understanding of Council’s business, culture and financial reporting obligations, the ability to communicate well and build effective working relationships with Council and fellow Committee members, and, notably, the personal courage to raise difficult issues, ask hard questions and pursue independent lines of inquiry rather than simply going along with the room. Following an Expression of Interest process, Ms White has been recommended for the role and would commence at the October 2026 meeting.
Item 8.5 – Motion For The Local Government NSW Annual Conference 2026
At our last meeting Councillors endorsed two motions put forward by me for TRC to submit to the Local Government NSW conference in November. For more explanation on that conference, see last meeting’s agenda summary post:
https://ryanbrooke.au/tonight-on-council-22-09-2026/
Cr North has also submitted a motion for endorsement. The core of the motion is a push to lift the benchmark contribution rates that large-scale solar, wind and eligible stand-alone battery storage projects pay into host council areas, proposing a twenty-five per cent increase on top of existing suggested benchmark rate per megawatt-hour. Under the proposed rates, large-scale solar would move from $850 to $1,062.50 per megawatt, wind from $1,050 to $1,312.50 per megawatt, and eligible battery storage from $150 to $187.50 per megawatt-hour, with annual indexation continuing to apply on top.
The motion also calls for a separate additional contribution equivalent to fifteen per cent of that revised amount, specifically to support initiatives led by local First Nations communities, with the priorities and governance for that funding to be worked out through engagement with Traditional Owners, Local Aboriginal Land Councils and other appropriate local Aboriginal organisations, rather than being decided for them. Combined, the two increases work out to a 43.75 per cent uplift on the original benchmark before indexation.
It’s made clear this First Nations funding stream is meant to sit alongside, not instead of, existing cultural heritage, employment or procurement obligations. And I believe the catalyst for this suggestion was TRC’s experience negotiating a Voluntary Planning Agreement with the Calala Battery Storage System. For more on that, see this post:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FDMpymeUS/
The reasoning behind the twenty-five per cent figure is framed quite carefully as a policy response to a structural problem rather than as an inflation catch-up. The motion’s supporting material argues that household CPI doesn’t capture what’s actually driving up council costs in areas experiencing concentrated renewable development, since competition for construction materials, contractors and skilled workers pushes up what councils pay to maintain entirely unrelated roads and water assets nearby, even when a renewable energy proponent has met every one of its own site-specific obligations. It backs this with IPART’s own separate asset cost forecasting (3.5 per cent for 2026–2027, against 2.8 per cent for other operating costs) and ABS data showing national road and bridge construction prices rose 4.5 per cent in the June 2026 quarter against just 0.6 per cent CPI growth, attributed largely to bitumen and diesel price shocks tied to the conflict in the Middle East. It’s careful to note this isn’t evidence that renewable projects themselves caused that spike, just evidence that councils in this position are exposed to cost shocks CPI indexation alone doesn’t reflect, with Infrastructure Australia’s forecast that regional infrastructure workforce shortages will quadruple between 2025 and 2027 cited as further grounds for concern about competition for scarce labour.
The remaining parts of the motion are about locking in process rather than dollar figures. It calls for indexation to be confirmed from the guideline’s 2024–25 base year right through negotiation, construction and operation, for periodic independent reviews of whether the benchmark rates remain adequate, for the funding framework to explicitly recognise the flow-on cost pressures described above without that funding substituting for councils’ baseline funding, and for recurrent State funding to cover the extra coordination and assessment work renewable projects place on council staff. It also seeks to preserve councils’ existing, separate rights to have project impacts prevented, mitigated or made good, and to establish proper contribution arrangements for transmission infrastructure and other renewable assets that fall outside the current benchmarks altogether, including regional service centres that sit outside Renewable Energy Zone boundaries but still wear the knock-on effects (Tamworth being the obvious example).
Item 8.6 – Audit, Risk And Improvement Committee
This is an item to receive and note the minutes of the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee’s 11 August 2026 meeting. Minutes for this committee are included as a confidential enclosure for Councillors to review, and frustratingly because of that no additional details are provided in the public business paper. Because of this I cannot comment on the content of those minutes.
Item 8.7 – Amendment To Ordinary Council Meeting Schedule
This item asks Councillors to move the Ordinary Meeting currently scheduled for 1 December 2026 to 8 December 2026 because the original date clashes with the scheduled sister city delegation visit from Tamworth to Sannohe, which would mean the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and General Manager are all unavailable to attend that meeting. Rather than run the meeting without them, the recommendation is to shift it back a week to 8 December.
The report also notes TRC needs to adopt its Annual Report before 30 November, which this schedule change doesn’t itself provide for, so an extraordinary meeting is being considered for November to handle that separately. The report says more detail on that will come once it’s locked in.
Community Services
Item 9.1 – Barraba Rugby League Club Request For A Gifted Mower
This item asks Councillors to allocate a replacement mower to the Barraba Rugby League Club, who maintain the Barraba Recreation Ground under an existing licence agreement, and to delegate authority to Council’s Manager Plant, Fleet and Building Services to approve future replacements down the track without needing to bring the request back to Council.
The Club has held a licence over part of the Barraba Recreation Ground since 2026 and relies on a group of volunteers to keep the ground in a condition fit for their Group 19 competition matches and broader community use. Their current mower, originally gifted by TRC, has reached the end of its serviceable life, and they’ve written to TRC asking for a replacement so they can keep maintaining the grounds properly. Rather than buying new, the recommendation is to gift the Club a suitable second-hand mower once one becomes available through Council’s own plant replacement cycle, given TRC runs similar machines that come up for renewal regularly, with the written-down value of a comparable mower sitting at around $6,000 excluding GST.
Once allocated, the Club takes on full responsibility for garaging, security, servicing and all ongoing running costs for the mower, essentially treating it as their own asset while it’s in their care.
Item 9.2 – Tamworth Region Arts Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes – 16 July 2026
This item asks Councillors to receive and note the minutes of the Tamworth Region Arts Advisory Committee (TRAAC) meeting held on 16 July, and to approve the Public Art subcommittee, which met separately on 24 September, recommendation to proceed to detailed design on a Michael Ferris sculpture for the Peel River Loop.
The report advises that the working group identified two projects as focus. The first has come through the new Mural Registry, with Sora Community Services requesting a mural on their building, and an opportunity has since emerged to extend that across the adjacent laneway as well. If the owner of the neighbouring Nectar building comes on board, the concept supported unanimously by the subcommittee would see murals on both building walls plus the laneway’s road surface itself, creating an immersive public art space rather than a single standalone mural.
The second project is the Michael Ferris sculpture for the Peel River Loop, where the subcommittee has worked through three design options Michael put forward and selected one to proceed to detailed design. The total cost for the artwork, covering the artist’s fee, transport and installation support, is $10,000, with a further estimated $10,000 needed for foundations, engineering, landscaping and signage, all of which is advised as being funded from this financial year’s Public Art Fund rather than requiring any new allocation.
Item 9.3 – Place Management Update – Section 355 Committee Minutes
This item covers a batch of Section 355 Committee governance matters, formalising annual general meeting appointments for four committees, extending one committee’s delegated area, and setting up two community mower arrangements.
Section 355 of the Local Government Act allows Councils to delegate certain functions, whether that’s managing a facility, running an event, or providing advice on a specific community asset, to a committee of volunteers, with the delegation formalised under section 377. Off the back of their respective annual general meetings, Councillors are being asked to formally appoint the executive members and general members elected by the Barraba Sports Ground Committee (11 March), the Bendemeer Town Hall Committee (28 June) and the Moonbi War Memorial Hall and Recreation Reserve Committee (25 August), confirming the people who’ll actually be running these facilities on the community’s behalf for the year ahead.
There is also a request to approve an extension to the Nemingha Hall and Recreation Reserve Committee’s delegated authority, to bring in the former site of the Tamworth Radio Control Car Club at Lot 1 DP 329582. That club folded and handed the site back to Council in October 2025, and the recommendation is being made on the basis that rather than leaving it to sit idle, folding it into the existing Nemingha Committee’s responsibilities gives it a path to ongoing maintenance and potential recreational use, under a committee that’s already set up and operating nearby.
There are also two new Community Mower Agreements proposed. The Niangala Memorial Hall Committee has agreed to take on mowing of the adjoining Niangala Recreation Reserve, land that is under TRC’s care and control, picking up where a now-defunct Section 355 Committee previously managed it with a designated community mower. It’s advised that TRC’s Sport and Recreation Division will chip in $100 a year toward the Committee’s fuel costs. The second arrangement, with the Nundle District Lions Club, covers the grounds of the Nundle Court House Museum, which sits on Crown land rather than anything under TRC’s management, so this one is TRC agreeing to provide a mower from its surplus plant changeover programme, worth an estimated $4,000, should a suitable one become available, similar to Item 9.1 above.
The recommendation is to appoint the committee members as listed, extend the Nemingha Committee’s delegation to include the former car club site, and enter into the two Community Mower Agreements as described.
Item 9.4 – Northern Inland Academy Of Sport Partnership
This item asks Councillors to approve two related but distinct things: continuing the long-standing office accommodation partnership with the Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) at the Sports Hub, and committing to host the Regional Academy Games in Tamworth for a further three years, 2028 through to 2030.
NIAS is the regional body responsible for developing athletes and coaches across the Northern Inland region, operating under the broader Regional Academies of Sport network that feeds athletes through to state, national and international competition. TRC’s relationship with NIAS goes back a while, with the organisation previously housed at Parry House before relocating to the Sports Hub at the Tamworth Sports Dome when it opened in January 2025, a collaborative space that also hosts the NSW Office of Sport, AFL, NRL, NSW Cricket and Northern NSW Football. NIAS currently occupies four desk spaces there.
On the accommodation side, NIAS has put forward a proposal seeking continued office space plus a blanket waiver of facility hire fees across Council venues, together valued at $40,000 a year. Staff are recommending Councillors continue the office accommodation component, valued at $18,000 a year for the four workstations, but are not recommending the blanket fee waiver NIAS has asked for, noting TRC has never provided that kind of unrestricted waiver for NIAS programmes and initiatives.
The Regional Academy Games proposal is a separate matter, though obviously connected given it flows from the same NIAS/RAS relationship. Tamworth has hosted these games since 2025 under the current arrangement, and they’re a significant event, bringing together more than 3,000 athletes, coaches, officials and support staff each year and generating an estimated $1.3 million in economic activity within the region. Normally these games rotate to a different region every three years. The ask this time is a step up from what TRC has previously contributed, moving from $20,000 to $30,000 in annual cash support plus the continued waiving of Council venue hire fees for the event itself, which the report attributes to rising costs of hosting an event at this scale, and are recommending Councillors meet in full to secure the Games for a further three years.
Financially, the office accommodation sits as value-in-kind within the Sport and Recreation operational budget, while the $30,000 annual contribution toward the Games would come from TRC’s General Fund.
Closed Council
As always, apologies about the lack of detail for these items, but I can only comment on what information has been made publicly available.
Item 11.1 – Proposed Sublease – Golden Guitar Café – Visitor Information Centre
The item seeks councillors’ authorisation to enter into a sublease agreement for the Golden Guitar Café at the Tamworth Visitor Information Centre.
Item 11.2 – E009-2027 – Expression of Interest – Tamworth Regional Airport – Proposed Lease of Hangar 6
The item seeks councillors’ authorisation to enter into a lease agreement for Hangar 6 at the Tamworth Regional Airport.
Item 11.3 – T093/2019 Extension of Kerbside Waste Collection Contract Beyond 30 June 2028
This item updates councillors about a potential commercial dispute between TRC and Cleanaway over the future of the kerbside waste collection contract.
Council’s current contract with Cleanaway is due to expire on 30 June 2028, but it was written with built-in flexibility, giving TRC the sole discretion to extend the term by a further seven years, plus two additional one-year extensions on top of that. Having opened preliminary discussions about exercising that extension option, Councillors are now being told Cleanaway doesn’t support an extension under the existing contractual terms, despite that extension provision having been part of the original tender and contract both parties signed up to. It’s advised that Cleanaway has apparently put forward some alternative pathways, including a negotiated extension involving commercial adjustments.
The summary in the public business paper states that TRC’s position is that it reasonably expected those terms to be honoured if it chose to exercise them.
Item 11.4 – Energy Contract Procurement For The Electricity Supply To Council’s Large And Small Sites Including Street Lighting
This item asks Councillors to delegate authority to the General Manager to review, accept and execute the final energy offer that comes out of the PEERS 4 (Program for Energy and Environmental Risk Solutions 4) tender process, covering electricity supply across TRC’s small and large sites, including street lighting, for the next four years.
PEERS is a coordinated, risk-managed procurement programme for Local Government rather than individual councils going out to the electricity market alone, with the idea being that pooling Council’s demand in with other participants through a structured tender process delivers more competitive pricing and greater budget certainty than negotiating a standalone contract would.
Item 11.5 – Proposed Sale Of Council Land – Tamworth Global Gateway Park (TGGP) – Proposed Lot 401 (Stage 4)
The item seeks councillors’ authorisation to proceed with the sale of land in relation to proposed Lot 401 at the Tamworth Global Gateway Park.
Item 11.6 – Proposed Lease Of Part International Flight Training Tamworth (IFTT) Facility – Tamworth Regional Airport – October 2026
The item seeks councillors’ authorisation to enter into a lease agreement and licence agreement for part of the International Flight Training Tamworth Facility at the Tamworth Regional Airport.