Tamworth Regional Council staff, mayor defend decision to slash water restrictions to drop to Level 1 in January 2021

Residents used social media to slam council's decision announced on Tuesday to cut water restrictions from Level 3 to Level 1 next week.

Council water operations manager Dan Coe echoed comments by Mayor Col Murray that they stood by the city's drought management plan.

"Council works off a drought management plan developed in 2015, with the upgrade of Chaffey Dam, and obviously we had a lot of consultation with the community then," Mr Coe said.

"As we come out of this drought we'll update that drought management plan and that's the opportunity for residents to have their say on changes to that document."

The plan is set to be put to the public for consultation in 2021.

His comments came after council announced on Tuesday that Chaffey Dam had hit 40.5 per cent full, beating a benchmark to drop water restrictions from Level 3 to Level 1.

Tamworth, Kootingal and Moonbi are all set to move to Level 1 water restrictions on Monday, January 4 next year. Manilla will also drop from Level 1 water restrictions to permanent water conservation measures the same day.

Cr Murray said council staff had anticipated the benchmark might be reached this week.

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He defended the decision to jump straight to Level 1 and not wait for further water inflows before dropping water restrictions.

Cr Murray earlier told the Leader Tamworth council had made a decision to simply follow their Drought Management Plan.

"We know there is a lot of concern or skepticism about what those [water] triggers might be but there's a lot of things to take into consideration as we understand the water availability from Chaffey Dam," he said.

"Once the irrigation community has access to the water, then irrespective of whether the townsfolk choose to conserve it or preserve it through restrictions the water will go down in Chaffey Dam. That's one of the considerations.

"La Nina, that's something that we need to consider."

The next benchmark for reducing water restrictions to permanent conservation measures is just another 10 per cent away, when Chaffey Dam fills to hallway.

Mr Coe told media that it's not impossible for Chaffey to reach the milestone by the end of the season.

"I'd say we're just still in the drought and coming out of the drought, hopefully. With La Nina, hopefully it keeps raining and Chaffey dam fills up. That's what everyone wants," he said.

Tamworth has not been at level 1 water restrictions in two years, he said.

With the drop in restrictions, home gardeners will once again be entitled to use sprinklers, though only for two hours a day.

Hand-held hoses can be used for more than 15 minutes a day, though only between between 4pm to 9am.

Pools can be filled and topped up.

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