THERE is a growing feeling among town and community councillors that they will be unable to afford to run certain facilities “offloaded” by Carmarthenshire county council.

That is the claim of Ammanford town councillor Wendy Evans who told colleagues that members of the Aman Group of Local Councils were writing to Carmarthenshire county council chief executive Mark James voicing their concerns.

Due to cutbacks, the local authority is transferring responsibility for some services to “grassroots” councils.

But Cllr Evans said it was felt that not enough thought had gone into the proposals to offload services.

“Town and community councils are not happy at all at what Carmarthenshire county council are throwing at them.

“These councils cannot afford to run toilets and parks,” she said.

“Letters are going to Mark James and One Voice Wales seeking answers to these questions,”

she added.

“If anything happens in a public toilet or a park then fingers will be pointed at the local council – there is money for some things in Carmarthenshire, but not for others.”

Meanwhile, Cllr Jonathan Jennings expressed surprise that the “takeover” of public toilets had not noticeably progressed.

“We’ve submitted to all the county council’s requests covering everything apart from the actual toilet paper, but to date I’ve not received anything back,” he told colleagues.

Only last week Cwmaman town councillor Emyr Jenkins claimed the proposed transfer of public toilets had left councillors looking “like a bunch of mugs”.

His comments prompted Cllr Kevin Madge to warn that the local authority no longer had the budget to maintain public toilets and some would inevitably close.