COUNCILS and community groups are stuck in a dilemma over the future of public facilities like the ones highlighted on these pages.

Local authorities across Notts have been forced to look into passing on their responsibilities for these buildings because they simply can't afford to run them anymore.

And with the age of austerity predicted to continue for some time yet, it is unlikely these cases will be the last.

The idea of passing the facilities on to the public to run seems like a sound one for a number of reasons.

It should cut bureaucracy, saves taxpayers money and gives members of the community true ownership of the facilities in their area.

It's hard to think of a better example of the Big Society than that.

However, the groups featured in the Post today have discovered the reality of running these facilities is often fraught with difficulty.

Community organisations, often by their very nature, have to work harder because they do not enjoy the same level of expertise, or the economies of scale, that a local council can rely on.

But there is one outstanding problem which keeps recurring again and again.

And that is the lack of money available to fund the facilities they are trying to run.

Councils always have a choice: they can increase council tax – however unpopular it might be with the public.

But these community groups don't have that option and mostly have to rely on grants from publicly funded organisations, and the generosity of the public, to stay afloat and provide services.

The trouble is, the grants that are so crucial to this way of working are not as readily available as they once were.

And the result is that the community organisations can end up being forced to shut down the facilities they have stepped in to save.

And all for the same basic reason the councils decided to pass them on to them to run in the first place – a basic lack of cash.