News · Land use · Maitland and Singleton
Both councils passed the Anambah to Branxton plan. Nobody has set the exhibition date.
We told you on 17 August that Maitland and Singleton would vote on 18 August on exhibiting the structure plan for 68,000 dwellings between Maitland and Branxton. Both minutes are now published and we have read them. Maitland carried it 12 votes to nil and took the officers’ recommendation without a word changed. Singleton carried its own, shorter motion the same night. Public exhibition will run for at least six weeks, concurrently across three councils. The one thing neither meeting settled is when it starts: Maitland handed that decision to its General Manager.
A structure plan is not a rezoning and it does not approve a house. What it does is set the frame that later precinct planning and planning-control changes are measured against, which makes the exhibition period the realistic moment for anyone to argue with it. That period is now certain to happen and its dates are not.
What Maitland actually resolved
Maitland’s resolution is the officers’ recommendation adopted in full, in five parts.
Council endorsed the draft plan and its sixteen attachments
for public exhibition for a minimum of six (6) weeks, to be undertaken concurrently with
Cessnock City Council and Singleton Council
. It resolved that
A further report be prepared for Council’s consideration following the public exhibition
,
and directed the General Manager to write both to the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces and to
relevant Ministers and Members of Parliament
.
The part worth reading twice is the second. Council
delegates authority to the General Manager, following consultation with the relevant officers of
Cessnock City Council and Singleton Council, to determine the commencement date for public
exhibition and make any minor amendments to the Structure Plan or supporting studies prior to
exhibition.
So the start date is an administrative decision made across three councils, not something a reader can find in a resolution. Anyone planning to make a submission is waiting on an announcement rather than a date already set.
The motion was moved by Cr S Halliday and seconded by Cr W Penfold, and carried on a recorded division of 12 for and none against. Those voting for it were Cr A Atkinson, Cr R Barstow, Cr D Ferris, Cr K Flannery, Cr M Griffin, Cr B Hackney, Cr S Halliday, Mayor P Penfold, Cr W Penfold, Cr B Whiting, Cr B Worth and Cr M Yarrington.
What Singleton resolved, and how it differs
Singleton dealt with the same plan as item GM48/26, brought forward in the agenda, and carried
resolution 104/26 moved by Deputy Mayor S George and seconded by Cr D Thompson. Its motion has three
parts rather than five. Council
Endorses the draft Anambah to Branxton Regionally Significant Growth Area Structure Plan and
supporting studies to be placed on public exhibition for at least six weeks
, will
Receive a further report detailing the feedback received during the public exhibition period
,
and adds a third element Maitland’s does not carry: a
Request for relevant authority to place the Transport Strategy on public exhibition.
The minutes record the motion as carried and do not record a division, so unlike Maitland there is no published vote count for Singleton and we are not going to imply one.
The number that is new
Maitland’s report puts a figure on its own share that we did not have in August. Of the
roughly 68,000 dwellings across the whole growth area, the report says
approximately 35,000 could be situated in the Maitland part of the RSGA over the next 40
years
. That is a little over half the total in one local government area.
The report also names where the money to write the plan came from:
Cessnock Council secured grant funding under the Commonwealth Housing Support Program (Stream 1)
to support the preparation of the draft Structure Plan and an RSGA-wide Infrastructure Delivery
Plan
. The plan the three councils wrote because the state-led process did not eventuate was paid
for federally.
How we did this
Both councils publish their business papers through InfoCouncil, and both sets of minutes for 18 August 2026 are now up. We downloaded and read them: Maitland’s Ordinary Meeting minutes, 71 pages, and Singleton’s, 18 pages. Every quotation above is verbatim from the resolution text in those minutes, and the councillor names are as the division is recorded.
Two limits worth stating. We have not confirmed what Cessnock resolved. The exhibition is to run concurrently across three councils and Cessnock is the one that secured the federal grant, but it does not publish through InfoCouncil and we did not reach its papers for this piece, so we have described only the two councils whose minutes we read. And a resolution to exhibit is not an exhibition: until a commencement date is announced, nothing here tells you when submissions open.
Sources
- Maitland City Council, Ordinary Meeting minutes, 18 August 2026 (PDF, 71 pages), read in full 30 August 2026: item 11.2, the executive summary including the approximately 35,000 Maitland dwellings and the Commonwealth Housing Support Program funding, the five-part council resolution verbatim, the mover and seconder, and the recorded division of 12 for and none against with the names.
- Singleton Council, Council Meeting minutes, 18 August 2026 (PDF, 18 pages), read in full 30 August 2026: item GM48/26, resolution 104/26 verbatim, its mover and seconder, and the absence of a recorded division.
Spotted an error? Request a correction and we will check it against the minutes and log the outcome here.