McKinna takes full team to Central Coast Council election

One of the Central Coast’s best known and respected identities will head a team of 15 candidates to the September 14 Central Coast Council election under that Team Central Coast banner.

Mr McKinna who is presently Chair of Regional Development Australia Central Coast was Foundation Coach of the Central Coast Mariners for the first five years and then General Manager.

He was Mayor of Gosford City Council for three years until it was amalgamated with Wyong Council to become the ill-fated Central Coast Council.

It was during his time as Mayor of Gosford that more than a billion dollars’ worth of developments were approved leading to the transformation of Gosford that we are seeing today.

Mr McKinna said, “the Central Coast is falling behind regional centres. As the third most populous council in NSW, a newly elected council needs to reflect the aspirations of its residents and leverage the region’s huge economic and social potential to prompt its long-term growth and development.”

“Council must prioritise residents in decision-making and after almost eight years in administration, it is time the residents of the Central Coast are listened to by a sensible, forward-looking, and strong, newly elected Council,” he said.

Mr McKinna said, “Slow and complicated approval processes, a lack of necessary infrastructure and minimal support by the state and federal government have pushed the Central Coast into a housing crisis.

The Central Coast needs a proactive, progressive, and efficient council that will provide affordable and accessible housing to support long-term growth.

Major issues that Team Central Coast will address include:

Housing shortages:

There is a shortage of low-cost rental accommodation on the Central Coast. Rental vacancies are at an all-time low of 1.4% and social housing wait periods exceed 10 years.

Central Coast in housing stress:

The number of households in ‘housing stress’ is projected to reach at least 31 000 by 2036.

Insufficient growth:

The rate of medium and higher density development in the LGA is much lower than the Greater Sydney average and has experienced little or no proportional growth over the past decade. There has been no proportional growth in private rental stock in the LGA since 2006, and an actual decline in the amount of social housing since 2011.

Slow council approval processes are stunting growth:

The Central Coast experienced a 28 percent shortfall in new housing approvals against targets and new housing approvals are tracking below the previous 5-year average. A 65 percent increase in dwelling approvals is needed by 2041 to accommodate for the required 55 269 additional dwellings on the Coast.

Housing on the Central Coast is unaffordable:

The Central Coast is one of the worst-hit areas for mortgage stress in Australia. Furthermore, only 2% of available rental stock in the Central Coast is affordable to very low-income renters, noting that this group makes up more than 40% of all renters. Median unit rental prices are 4.8 percent higher than the state average.

Homelessness hot spot:

The Central Coast was listed in the top ten of homelessness hotspots in the state last year, with the rate of homelessness increasing by 8.6 percent from 1910 in 2022-23 to 1996 2023-24.