Tamworth Regional Council and Gunnedah Shire Council feed local road data to Live Traffic app during floods

Since October, local councils in the New England North West have been able to feed local road data into the Transport for NSW Live Traffic app.

The feature of the app, which usually only provides updates to state-owned roads, was slated to keep motorists up-to-date on closures, delays and repairs of any roads during disasters like floods.

A spokesperson for Tamworth Regional Council said council has been utilising the feature, but there had been problems with feeding in data.

"We have found the app works well for scheduled roadworks," the spokesperson said.

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"But can somewhat be challenging to keep people informed during complex events such as floods."

Mayor Russell Webb said it was a service council is trying to "enhance" but it's proving a "stretch on resources".

"The value that we can add to that is if we can put factual information in Live Traffic then it assists our residents and we believe that's a good outcome," he said.

"But there are a lot of councils that are not contributing because they don't have the resources to do it."

Council keeps motorists up-to-date on road closures during floods on its Facebook page.

Since October 20 council has reported 388 incidents to Live Traffic, the second highest number of incidents across 22 participating councils across the state.

A spokesperson for Transport for NSW said the uptake had been "very positive".

The spokesperson said during events like floods and fires people visit the Live Traffic website and app up to 25 times more then the daily average.

The uptick comes as Member for Dubbo Dugald Saunders urged residents not to rely on the app

"You do need to actively search out a few different sources," Mr Saunders said.

"There isn't one that has absolutely everything at the moment."

Mr Saunders said motorists should check Live Traffic and council Facebook pages before starting their trip.

"That's the best way to go about it at the moment," he said.

With the town being hit by constant major flooding since October, a spokesperson for Gunnedah Shire Council said council "supplies timely information" on local and state roads to Live Traffic.

But council relies mainly on uploading information to Facebook and council's website.

A Gunnedah resident told the Leader the app was unreliable and often took hours to update.

"I even deleted the app because I was having trouble with it," they said.

The rollout of giving local councils access to upload local road data to the app will continue with priority given to regional councils who have been impacted by natural disasters.

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