Tamworth Regional Council assures community region's smaller tips won't face closure in proposed changes

Council's director of water and waste Bruce Logan said despite resident's concerns, the tips in Manilla and Barraba will remain open, and council never had a plan to close them.

Instead, it has proposed to transition both landfills to Small Vehicle Transfer Stations over the next one to two years.

The changes would mean waste would not go into the ground in Manilla and Barraba, it would instead be transferred to landfill in Tamworth.

"If it's a landfill, we actually bury waste on site, but if it's a Small Vehicle Transfer Station, we accept the waste there but we transfer that waste to our Forrest Road facility and it's buried there," he said.

"The residents in Barraba, Manilla and surrounding areas will still be able to deliver waste to those surrounding facilities, it's just whether it gets buried on site or whether it gets transported away, that's all we're changing."

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Mr Logan said under the transition there would be no changes to staffing or operating hours at the sites.

"It's not a staffing issue. It's about the cost and environmental issues associated with running landfills," he said.

"Landfills have to be licensed, they have to be monitored by the EPA, they have to be rehabilitated once the holes are full and that costs a lot of money so only having one dedicated landfill in the council area is a far better approach than having three."

Council is also looking at solutions for keeping tips open at Niangala and Watson's Creek, after initially proposing to close the sites which sparked community backlash.

"The community very, very strongly told the council that they didn't want the facilities to close, so the council has decided to have a look at how much it will cost to keep those two facilities open," Mr Logan said.

"Once we work out how much that will cost, we will work out if we transfer a portion of that cost across all of the regional and remote property owners that presently pay a base charge to access those facilities and how much that charge would increase by.

"Then we'll go back to Niangala and Watson's Creek community and tell them we will keep these facilities open if you're prepared to pay extra."

The final decision will go before TRC councillors.

The proposed changes are on public exhibition on council's website, along with the draft 22-23 Annual Operating Plan, Revenue Policy and associated documents.

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