THE deputy leader of Carmarthenshire County Council has pledged the authority will do its utmost to ensure Brynaman swimming pool re-opens next year, Cllr Kevin Madge spoke out after the Guardian exclusively revealed that the future of Wales's only surviving lido had been plunged into doubt because County Hall could not meet the £20,000 repair cost caused by frost damage.

"The way local government is going we could be looking at cuts ranging from £10m-£30m over the next three years," he said.

"Eighty per cent of our funding comes from the Assembly, but we will be doing our best to ensure Brynaman swimming pool opens next year."

Responding to a suggestion by the Guardian that the sum of £20,000 was "chickenfeed" to the local authority, Cllr Madge replied: "Twenty thousand pounds is a huge amount of money as far as our parks department are concerned."

But he was at a loss to explain why the authority had not divulged their reason for not re-opening the pool almost until the start of the school summer holidays.

Meanwhile, council chiefs have apologised to the Brynaman Swimming Pool Association for not keeping the volunteers informed while conceding they had left it too late to consider what repairs were required.

Ian Jones of Leisure and Tourism said that as compensation to local children and families for the loss of this summer facility, the Council offered to put on a bus service to take them to Ammanford pool on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays during August.

The Council agreed with the BSPA that the pool would be great loss to the community, but everything would be done to ensure it opened next year.