The condition was imposed on owners of the town's famous horse-drawn carriages by the council after complaints about the amount of smelly and unsightly mess left by the horses.

In June they made it a condition of the operators' license that all horses should be fitted with the nappies, or dung catchers, which were designed by the RSPCA. But a row has broken out after recent inspections showed that some operators are failing to comply with the new regulation.They have now been warned they face losing their license unless they clean up their act.