Tamworth Waste Management centre will open as normal, but several others have been hamstrung by staff shortages due to COVID

Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) has made the decision to close four Rural Waste Management Facilities this weekend.

Manager Waste and Resource Recovery, Morne Hattingh, said due to multiple staff being required to self-isolate in line with COVID-19 health measures, the Small Vehicle Waste Management Stations at Duri, Somerton, Dungowan, Bendemeer will not open on either Saturday 23 April, 2022 or Sunday 24 April, 2022.

"Every day this week we have had increasing numbers of staff in our division not able to attend work due to COVID-19 - yesterday four more staff have had to start isolating for seven days which means we have reached a tipping point and are not able to have all facilities open over the weekend," Mr Hattingh said.

"Until now we have managed to move staff around to be able to operate all sites, but we do not have enough available staff to cover the weekend.

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"This is an unavoidable situation and we thank residents in those communities for their understanding about the inconvenience to them.

"Closing the four regional sites will ensure we have the staff needed to keep our critical sites open at Tamworth's Forest Road Landfill, Kootingal, Barraba, Nundle and Manilla."

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