Niangala still in the dark about future of tip after heated meeting with Tamworth Regional Council

Residents of Niangala and Watsons Creek were shocked to receive notices advertising that their unstaffed local rubbish tips would close on July 1.

The staffed Dungowan tip, which is the next nearest, is about 45 minutes away.

Tamworth council now hopes neighbouring Walcha Council, which borders the community, will solve the problem for them.

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About 50 locals - the bulk of the small community - gathered at the Niangala Memorial Hall to meet Tamworth Regional Council Director of Water and Waste Bruce Logan and Tamworth Mayor Russell Webb on Saturday.

At times the 90-minute meeting became confrontational and even aggressive, with the tight-knit community united in opposition to any closure, and heavily critical of council's consultation on the plan and the meeting.

One resident told the Leader they paid their rates, but were facing the prospect of getting neither roads nor rubbish in return.

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Resident Brittany Moore said the community had only found out about the plan a week after it was opened for public consultation.

She said they were still in the dark about the future, even after the meeting.

"I believe that council came here very poorly prepared," she said.

"They came here with all their arguments with no solutions, not solid numbers.

"I expected them to come with four or five different options and the costs associated with those options. They had no options for us, it was put entirely back on the community."

Tamworth Mayor Russell Webb told the crowd there might be a solution: a staffed tip.

But it appears that can only happen through a negotiated deal with Walcha Council to provide staff to staff the tip for the border community.

Cr Webb revealed he had started talks with the neighbouring council about a deal, with the community paying Walcha to staff it.

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"I'm very aware that the people that live up here, probably the last thing they want to do is see the facility close," he said.

He said he spoke to the mayor and general manager of Walcha last week about an arrangement for Tamworth residents to pay the other council to open the facility one or two days a week and manage the waste in it.

"It will cost less than what it's costing us now, but at the same time it can provide you with the opportunity of having a waste facility," he said.

Mr Logan made it clear he didn't support the Tamworth council staffing the tip directly.

He said the facility cannot remain open without staffing, due to its net cost of about $50,000 per year to council, because fees cannot be levied from users, and due to fears of illegal dumping.

Any closure would require a vote by councillors.

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Amy Burgess said she the community still didn't have a solution.

"There are a lot of options that could be considered. I'd like to see them probably to go away and have look at some of those and come back with some detail around them," she said.

Gail Brazel said the communities of largely farmers around Niangala feel left out by the big city.

"We probably feel that we're fringe dwellers out here, we don't get much in the way of services whatsoever..." she said.

"They just try to pretend that we're not here. The roads are poor, that Port Stephen's Cutting ... just got lines recently, that shows how bad the cutting is."

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