The change will affect rough sleepers according to campaigners

The local authority is suspending its Winterwatch Scheme, which provides temporary accommodation for single people, to focus on urgent cases.

The Pembrokeshire Care Society says it will have 'devastating' affect.

The charity says it helped 682 people who were homeless or threatened with homelessness in the last year.

We recognise that this is a serious problem Bill Roberts, Pembrokeshire Council

The charity's manager Carol Crowther said while the county did not have many people sleeping rough on the streets, homelessness was an increasing problem.

"People who are rough sleeping tend to be on their own in Pembrokeshire so we get people sleeping in cars or hedgerows," she explained.

"They are on their own whereas in cities at least they get a little bit of support from other homeless people because they tend to group together."

Ms Crowther said the main cause of homelessness in Pembrokeshire was a lack of affordable housing following the right to buy council homes and because property prices had risen.

'Regretful'

"We are devastated. It was a safety net for us," she added.

"Without that service we don't know what we are going to do with our rough sleepers.

"We know that the resources in the council are just not there to provide these additional schemes, but this is something that should have been looked at years ago."

The council says because of an increase in homelessness it has to concentrate its limited resources on priority cases, such as adults and families with children.

Cabinet member for housing and community safety, Bill Roberts, said a review was underway on how it tackled homelessness.

"It's a regretful position that we have arrived at," he said.

"It's not an easy decision just to cancel the service.

"The situation will be reviewed continuously."

He said the authority hoped to reinstate the Winterwatch scheme in future years but was also looking at ways at providing affordable accommodation.