Council meetings

General Council Meetings and Public Forum Meetings

The most significant decisions affecting Hornsby Shire are made at public Council Meetings, which are held monthly.

All meetings take place in the Council Chambers, 296 Peats Ferry Road, Hornsby.

Meeting times

Public Forum Meeting: 5:30 PM
General Council Meeting: 7:00 PM

Both meetings are held on the same day.

The Public Forum Meeting and the General Council Meeting are livestreamed on Council’s webcast.

Public attendance and participation

All members of the public are welcome to attend.

Public Forum speakers may attend in person or remotely
Registration is required to attend and/or speak at Public Forum Meetings
Registrations must be submitted no later than the day before the meeting

Important change:

In accordance with the Office of Local Government’s (OLG) updated 2025 Model Code of Meeting Practice, registrations to speak during General Council Meetings are no longer accepted. Members of the public may only speak at the Public Forum Meeting.

If you are speaking on behalf of a community group provide the details of the name of the group, what position they hold in the group, the number of members in the group and the authorisation by the group to make representation to Council on the matter.

Generally, a maximum of four addresses/speakers from the public are permitted on any agenda or non-agenda item – usually two addresses/speakers for and two against the recommendation, in respect of agenda items. Where more than four registrations to speak are received on an item, preference will be given to those registrations received by Council first.

A time limit of three minutes per speaker applies so members of the public should ensure their address/speech meets these criteria.

The Speaker Forms will be distributed to Councillors and relevant Senior Staff prior to the Meeting to ensure that Councillors have all available information on hand to make appropriate and well-informed decisions at the Council Meeting.

If there are any questions in respect of the above, contact should be made with Council’s Council Meeting and Governance Officer on 9847 6764 or by emailing councilmeetings@hornsby.nsw.gov.au.

Live streaming of Council meetings and Public Forum meetings

You can now view Council meetings live from the comfort of your own home. As of 8 August 2018 General meetings of Council will be live streamed from the Council Chambers. You are also able to access archived meetings (for the preceding six months). Confidential sessions of Council Meetings will not be broadcast. If the webcast stream goes black during a meeting, this means that Council has entered into confidential session.

Hornsby Council accepts no liability for any defamatory remarks that may be made during the course of the meeting.

View live streamed Council meetings and Public Forum meetings

How to access business papers

Council’s business papers include the reports and staff recommendations for each item to be considered by Council, while the attachments contain further details such as plans and photographs. The reports and attachments are published on Council’s website nine days before each meeting.

The minutes of the meeting detail Council’s decisions about those items and are published on the website by 5pm on the Friday following the meeting.

Go to business papers and minutes (from October 2008 to now)

Minutes only for the period 1906 – 2008 are available below.

Council Meeting Minutes 1906-2008

For full Business Papers for the period 1997 – 2008, please contact Council’s Access to Information Team on 98476027 or email GIPA@hornsby.nsw.gov.au.

Planning Decisions Register

Council also maintains a separate register of decisions about planning matters.

Register of Declarations of Interest

Audio Recording of Council meetings

All Council meetings are audio recorded and the recordings, excluding any confidential items, are available on the website (see below). Council makes every effort to ensure the full meeting is included in the recording. However, the equipment occasionally experiences malfunctions and Council cannot guarantee the meeting is always recorded in its entirety.

Hornsby Local Planning Panel Meetings

Business Papers, Minutes and Audio Recordings in respect of matters determined by the Hornsby Local Planning Panel.