Drought management plan review: Tamworth Regional Council to review the roadmap through drought

It was always part of the plan to review the blueprint that helped guide the council through the worst of the most recent drought.

Now, the council needs to decide when the review should start, how the community will be involved and when, TRC water and waste director Bruce Logan said.

"The council last reviewed the drought management plan in 2015, and obviously that's the roadmap that we have used to date to get Tamworth and the other centres in Tamworth Regional Council through the drought," he said.

"I think it's been very successful, but it is important for us to review the drought management plan regularly and particularly after a severe drought like we've had so we can get feedback from the community about what did and didn't work."

A detailed survey of residents connected to town water will likely be taken when the council is on Level 3 water restrictions.

It will ask residents about things like when the pools are closed, water restriction levels, using treated waters for parks and gardens, the trigger levels in Manilla and Barraba or new ideas the council should implement in the next plan to conserve water.

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Councillor Juanita Wilson said unfortunately the word drought has become synonymous with Tamworth.

"We are actually looking at water management," she said.

"Drought is almost a subjective term, when drought management plans hit the media - there's Tamworth and drought management plans - it's much more productive for us to say that Tamworth is managing it's water plans.

"We are actually looking at water management and it's not productive to label it as drought management."

Mayor Col Murray said he would be "reluctant to change the deck chairs" at the moment and suggested the name change be part of the overall review later down the track.

Water patrols will be reinstated across the region to manage water restriction breaches.