Tamworth traffic light technician may become reality, according to Transport for NSW

It follows on from a six hour wait for a technician on Friday afternoon, when the Brisbane and Marius street lights went out.

Cr Mark Rodda said at the time it was "just absurd" there was no local contractor to fix problems.

But Transport for NSW has since said that Downer Mouchel, or DM Roads, the contractor responsible for the lights, was on the case.

"DM's regional sub-contractor is currently in the process of engaging a local resource based in Tamworth," a spokesperson said.

"The safety of the public is always the number one priority."

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A spokesperson on Friday originally reported the technical crew came from Newcastle, but has since said they came from Coffs Harbour.

"The contractor responsible for the traffic lights at Brisbane Street, Tamworth, Downer Mouchel (DM Roads) has confirmed its Coffs Harbour-based crew received a call to the job at 4.10pm Friday," the spokesperson said.

"Flooding on Waterfall Way added an estimated 1.5 hours to the travel time and the DM Roads technician crew arrived at about 8.15pm, rectifying the issue within an hour."

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The issue was raised in Tuesday night's Tamworth ordinary council meeting, too, with Cr Glenn Inglis stating "surely there's a more efficient way to deal with incidents like that".

"I'm not sure about you but I find that unbelievable you can't have someone on staff here in Tamworth. I thought they might have even been able to do it remotely," Cr Inglis said.

Police were directing traffic to begin with, then a Traffic Management Centre crew took over for the remainder of the time while the DM Roads team was en route.

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