BY MAX HARVEY
Lake Macquarie's ANZAC day services are facing financial pressure amidst growing attendance and safety concerns.
A new report shows council's bill for the events has ballooned by $24,152, or 63.4 per cent from 2025 to 2026.
The report claims the primary driver for this shift is growing size and complexity of ANZAC events, which have led to increased logistical requirements.
Transportation, complex traffic management, and infrastructure work are cited as major impacting factors.
Lake Macquarie Council's Manager of Arts, Culture, and Tourism Jacqui Hemsley authored the report.
She said fleet cost was a particular point of financial pain.
"The costs in particular last year were brought up because we have a fleet of heavy vehicles, which is a really important part of marches, but we've had to have external trucks come and help us do that," she said.
"So that had an additional cost to it."
In 2025, a total of 23 Council-owned trucks and drivers were required across 20 events, costing $7,500.
However, in April this year, Council spent an additional $17,000 hiring eight contractor trucks for the 19 scheduled events, bringing the total cost to $24,500.
Ms Hemsley said the extra fleet costs were due to a lack of suitable council vehicles, as well as growing safety requirements.
It's been reported police attempted to shut down the Morriset event in October last year, primarily due to an insufficient amount of bollards needed to prevent vehicles from entering pedestrian areas during the proceedings.
The report will be presented during the Ordinary Council Meeting on July 27.
"We're reporting back to Council what we've done in working with community groups, informing them about a pathway in the future and what we'll be doing for 2027," said Ms Hemsley.
