Tamworth is on track to house a brand new firefighting headquarters after an application was approved at Tuesday night's council meeting.
The final step in the planning process was cleared for a state-of-the-art NSW Rural Fire Service Fire Control Centre and Helipad at Westdale with councillors approving an amended development application.
The multimillion-dollar facility to accommodate training, specialist operators, equipment and volunteers will be built on a 58.5-hectare site owned by council which includes the operation Sutton’s Quarry plus two large dams.
Modifications to the original application included removing one Heli-pad and relocating the other to within the training zone located directly north-east of the Fire Control Centre and increasing the floor area and reconfiguring the internal layout of the control centre.
Mayor Col Murray said it had been a long approval process throughout the years.
"That is a brand-new facility," he said.
"This will give much relief, I am sure, to our rural firefighters and those management staff who are operating in a fairly constrained environment at the moment," he said.