A call is being made to Carmarthenshire County Council to focus its attention on keeping community gritting bins stocked in cold weather.

Residents in the Amman Valley - particularly those in hilly areas - have had a ‘nightmare’ experience in the week just gone with black ice caused by the freezing conditions, said Garnant member Cllr Kevin Madge.

“We had snow on Wednesday, then sleet and there was black ice everywhere,” he said. “Residents immediately emptied the gritting bins in their area to try to make their roads and pavements safer, and basically they’ve been empty ever since.

“The council doesn’t seem to have any sort of plan in place to refill the gritting bins and they need to get something sorted for when we have the next lot of freezing weather.

“It’s unacceptable that people have to fend for themselves in icy conditions."

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Councillor Madge’s own ward, which extends up to the Black Mountain, has a particularly large number of hilly areas and the untreated areas of black ice made it ‘a mess’, he said.

 “Up to Saturday, it was still pretty bad, and it only really improved yesterday, Sunday January 22.

"I’ve put this twice to the council in the past week, but nobody has got back to me.

“They need to have a policy of continuing to fill up gritting bins throughout the bad weather."

Carmarthenshire County Council has been contacted for a comment.