Cr Morse used a Bathurst Regional Council meeting in April last year to take the Western Advocate to task over a decade-long campaign calling for the introduction or low-level water restrictions that would have barred residents from using their hose to clean their driveway and from watering their lawns in the hottest part of the days.

As councillors discussed a report from council staff urging them to further tighten the water restrictions that had been introduced in November 2018, Cr Morse defended the previous lack of action by saying council had conducted a long-running Waterwise education campaign and that residents would not have accepted water restrictions in years when there was plenty of water in the dam.

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"In 2015-16 the dam was overflowing - now, hello, what resident of Bathurst would believe that we had water restrictions when the dam was overflowing?" Cr Morse told council last April.

"I mean, that would be quite silly for us to say, 'no, you can't water anything, the dam is overflowing'."

But now, with Ben Chifley Dam at 100.5 per cent capacity, Cr Morse concedes she has changed her view and supports council maintaining Level 3 "odds and even" water restrictions.

"It has been a very interesting exercise in what we did as a community when the dam was falling," Cr Morse said.

"I now don't know anyone who doesn't have a bucket in the shower and buckets outside and we're looking at how we use water differently.

"I think people realise that it was a real fluke that the dam filled up as fast as it did."

Cr Morse said it was a brave decision by council to introduce water restrictions for the first time in late 2018.

The decision came down to a narrow vote, with councillors Bobby Bourke, Ian North, Alex Christian and Warren Aubin voting against their introduction.