GORSLAS Community Council has agreed “in principal” to take over responsibility for the running of public toilets in the village.

The move makes the council one of the first to sign up to Carmarthenshire county council’s scheme to offload maintenance costs for public facilities onto smaller, more localised bodies.

Unless town and community councils accept a £1,000 one-off payout to run the toilets, all facilities in Carmarthenshire are earmarked for closure in March.

The move will almost certainly see Gorslas residents paying increased council tax bills next year as the town council looks to meet the estimated £2,000 annual cost of running the facilities.

“I am happy for us to take over the toilets, but in the back of my mind is the fear that there is some kind of design flaw which will be our responsibility to fix in the future,” said Cllr Ellis Davies.

The question of such a “flaw” at Gorslas toilets has been raised since the facility, which has constantly been plagued by damp, was erected some years ago and has been the subject of repeated community council requests to the local authority.

“They are certainly in a bad state, particularly considering they are relatively new,” said council clerk Elfryn Williams.

Mr Williams said he had investigated various methods of tackling the issues at the facilities and the best option appeared to be installing specialised damp-proofing panels at a cost of £7,500.

Councillors agreed they would accept responsibility for the toilets in principal, subject to the county council bringing the facilities up to an acceptable standard.