With City Olympic Pool closed, the number of visitors to West Tamworth has skyrocketed from 280 each day to about 600 in December.

Group bookings have had to be turned away under the strain, Tamworth Regional Council strategic sports and recreation manager Peter Watling said.

"We've had to say no because of the over-crowding and water quality, there are limits on the ability to filter the water," he said.

"We're approaching Tamworth Country Music Festival which will put extra load on that pool which is a bit concerning.

"We're managing as best we can with a busy situation."

Carnivals will be impacted this season as schools may be asked to send only competitive swimmers or to move their events to Manilla's pool.

Scully Pool was allowed to remain open on the proviso it uses council bore water to top up under water restrictions.

With evaporation and users tracking water out of the pool, up to 80,000 litres is being trucked in each day.

That's around three to four truckloads.

Chlorination has proved a successful way to keep the water quality up to standard, but sand filters have been upped to three times a week.

Mr Watling said more people had been going to Barraba and Kootingal pools and more lifeguards had been put on to monitor Scully Pool swimmers.

Read also:

"Now we have Manilla's 50m pool open we'll be trying to push school carnivals and other major events to Manilla," he said.

"We ask everyone to be understanding given it was a challenge to get Scully Pool open - it wasn't that long ago that Scully and Kootingal weren't going to open but we fought hard on the basis we would use bore water."

Want more local news? Subscribe to the Leader to read it here first