The Port Macquarie-Hastings Council is calling on the state government for a review of COVID-19 travel exemptions to the area by residents from NSW hotspots.
Mayor Peta Pinson and council's CEO have written to the government about the community's frustration and opposition to travel exemptions that allow Greater Sydney residents to visit regional areas to inspect property.
Cr Pinson said a positive case from Sydney used the exemption process to fly to Port Macquarie last month while infectious with COVID-19.
She said during their stay they visited at least 20 venues, leading to a seven-day snap lockdown of the region.
"This lockdown, in the second week of the school holidays and over a long weekend, is devastating for our residents, visitors to the area, and local businesses," Cr Pinson said.
Cr Pinson said the community has done the right thing in complying with COVID-19 restrictions and vaccination messages with no locally transmitted cases for well over a year.
"Our community is hurting right now. My heart is breaking at some of the messages I've received about the impact of this lockdown on families and businesses.
"We've heard and referred your [the community's] concerns that the permit system is a loophole. This needs to be closed to protect communities such as ours from further incidents."
Lockdown decision slammed
A tourist operator west of Port Macquarie has slammed the decision to lock down the council area ahead of the October long weekend.
"We have just had enough. With the last lockdown we had to cancel, lost over $50,000 in those two weeks, which was very hard to make up. And you can't make it up," said Ralph Clissold who runs the Mount Seaview Resort.
"This time we'd all worked hard to have lots of people coming for the long weekend. We had all sorts of people come in to the retreat, camp site, caravan park, lots of people coming. Especially locals in the region coming to get away for a long weekend.
"These lockdowns are causing more mental health problems, stress, financial ruin than any related COVID deaths."
Anissa Manton, co-owner of the Stoney Aqua Park north of Port Macquarie which only reopened a week ago after the devastating floods in March, said being put back into lockdown was extremely disappointing.
"We have been working really hard to get the park back up and running," she said.
"We did like a backyard blitz to get the accommodation all up and running. We were completely booked out.
"It was really important for our staff. We've kept them on for six months. Stop starting is not real economical."
