Central Coast residents will head to the polls for local government elections four years after the entire council was sacked. 

Central Coast councillors were initially suspended in 2020 after their budget deficit grew to the tens of millions of dollars, leaving the council with no cash to pay its staff. 

The council’s half a billion dollars in debt included the unlawful access of restricted funds.

A public inquiry ending in March this year led to the formal sacking of 13 councillors. 

NSW local government minister Wendy Tuckerman has announced polling will be held on September 14, 2024, meaning residents of Central Coast will have to wait another two years before being able to elect their local representatives. 

The election date is in line with the next round of local government elections in NSW, which Ms Tuckerman said would help keep the cost of the election down and ensure the council completed its reforms.

“I know this may be disappointing for some people but it's important that we make sure that we're not going back to the same situation we were in the past,” she said.

Sacked deputy mayor Jane Smith says it is “outrageous” and a “kick in the guts” that locals are being made to wait until 2024.

“Our community has lost their voice,” Ms Smith told reporters.

“It's the ratepayers that have significantly been accosted in this whole environment and they're the ones that have been paying for the mistakes of the previous council.

“The NSW Liberal government is demonstrating a complete lack of connection and lack of integrity in removing local democracy for further two years.”

Others have accused the state government of denying locals an early vote on rate hikes pushed through by the administrator.

Administrator Rik Hart said setting a firm election date will allow the council to plan.

“While the financial crisis is in a sense technically over, in other words we do have cash now ... we do have a lot of work still to do inside the organisation,” Mr Hart said.

The council is on track to add more than $30 million to its surplus for the 2021-22 financial year, administrators say. 

The operating result for the year to date, excluding capital grants and contributions, shows a surplus of more than $70 million.