General information - Public and Open Forums and Council Meetings
Willoughby City Council’s statutory meetings are open to the public as part of Council's commitment to transparent decision making and engagement with our community.
Council holds monthly Public and Open Forum sessions as well as monthly Council Meetings. Public and Open Forums are held the Monday prior to the Council Meetings, which are held usually on the fourth Monday of each month (except July and January - check our Council Meetings calendar). Council may from time to time call an Extraordinary Meeting of Council to discuss urgent matters.
• Public and Open Forums will be held in the Council Chamber, level 6, 31 Victor Street Chatswood commencing at 6pm.
• Council Meetings will be held in the Council Chamber, level 6, 31 Victor Street Chatswood commencing at 7pm.
Members of the public who wish to attend either the Public and Open Forum or the Council Meeting in person may do so unless the Council resolves that the meeting be closed (Council Meetings only). During the closed section of the meeting members of the public will be excluded from the meeting during deliberation of confidential items.
Council Meetings are conducted in accordance with the directions issued by the Office of Local Government and as prescribed by:
- the Local Government Act 1993
- the Local Government (General) Regulation 2021
- Willoughby City Council’s Code of Meeting Practice (February 2025)
Agendas and Minutes
Matters requiring a decision are provided to Council in a report by Council officers. The report provides an executive summary, a discussion on the matter and makes a recommendation. These reports are collated into a ‘business paper’ or agenda, which is distributed to all Councillors and made available to members of the public via Council’s website.
The agenda for an upcoming Council is normally available nine business days before each meeting. Please note late reports may be added to an Agenda after publication.
The unconfirmed Minutes of the meeting along with the webcast will be available on this website as soon as practical after the Council Meeting. The Minutes of Council Meetings are confirmed at a subsequent meeting of the Council.
Instructions for accessing agenda and minutes
There are two ways to access the agenda and minutes for Council Meeting listed under Current and Upcoming Events.
To view the full agenda – click on the link to next to the relevant meeting event and select 'Download Packet' located at the top left of the page and the full Agenda will be downloaded.
Alternatively, to see a HTML version, click on the relevant meeting title and it will take you to a new browser. From this browser, locate the item you are after and then select either the report or the attachment you wish to see. Once published the minutes will also be available from this page.
Once the meeting has finished, the agenda, reports, minutes and recordings can be viewed under the ‘Most Recent Events’.
Should you wish to receive an alert when a document has been published to this page, please subscribe to this page using the link below.
Live streaming and recording
All Council meetings, except 'closed sessions', are livestreamed and recorded. By attending or watching the recording of Council Meetings you can see the decision-making process in action and gain further understanding of the wide range of issues Councillors deal with as part of their role.
To view a meeting when it is in progress, open the meeting link showing 'LIVE' beside it to view the livestream.
To view a recording, click on the ‘camera 
’ in the Media column to access via the meeting link.
Webcast recordings are available on Council’s website for 12 months only.
To access any business papers prior to October 2024:
(Council Meetings were in recess from August 2024 until October 2024 due to the 2024 Local Government Elections).