Numerous Barber Street businesses are suffering loss of profits with no traffic going past because of the street closure.

Gunnedah Hire Service director Rodney Wettenhall said it would be good if the council could lend a hand until business started picking up again.

"It would be good if they could help us out with our rates ... because we pay $6,500 rates on this block which is a lot of money to come up with with no passing traffic, which is why we bought the place in the first instance," Mr Wettenhall said.

"Now we don't have that for ... maybe eight months, so it's going to be tough getting through."

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Mr Wettenhall said business had "definitely slowed down" because of the drought and the street closure.

"With the drought it's really hard because we're already down a percentage with that and then down a bit more with no traffic," he said.

"We used to get ... 500 vehicles through here every evening and every morning and now there's no one."

While there was no mention made of rates assistance, a council spokesperson said there were still "a number of hardship payment options available".

"Council is ... establishing the Community Resilience Fund to answer the urgent needs of the community through the year ahead and help stimulate the economy of the shire. The fund includes $1 million through council, with the hopes that the state and federal governments will also contribute," the spokesperson said.

"The Community Resilience Program will allow council to look at the whole breadth of drought impacts across Gunnedah shire and to answer those needs in the best way we can."

The spokesperson said while the fund was approved at a recent council meeting, "the processes for looking at spending have not yet been approved".

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