CASH-strapped West Somerset Council has defended spending £1,800 on "ice alert" signs after the notices appeared in local car parks just days after the authority agreed to close public toilets to save £2,300.

The small yellow signs have been put up in council-owned car parks across the district and feature a temperature sensitive dial which turns blue when it drops below two degrees centigrade.

The signs also carry the warning "Ground is frozen if reflectors are blue".

Bruce Lang, the authority's corporate director, confirmed ten signs had been bought to put up in car parks across the district at a cost of £180 each.

But he said that, while the timing of their appearance had been unfortunate, the signs had been bought from last year's car park budget.

Mr Lang said: "There has been no additional expenditure on them and they were bought almost a year ago.

"But there would not have been any point putting them up in the summer which is why staff waited until the weather turned colder."

Mr Lang said councillors had met last year to draft a policy on the advice of insurers regarding the use of car parks during extreme winter weather.

"It's not something we had to do but the insurers were concerned about the health and safety of people using the car parks and said it would help to have signs there.

"We were just trying to take reasonable steps to warn the public and I take some comfort in the fact we have spent money to improve public safety.

"But I have to say, I don't think we would have bought them today given the position we are in now," Mr Lang said.

Only last week, the council's lead member for finance Cllr Kate Kravis warned councillors of the importance of saving every penny when cabinet

members voted to close at least four public toilets between November and March to save money.

The move had been criticised by opposition councillors, including Cllrs Peter Murphy and council chairman Cllr Doug Ross who claimed the anticipated £2,340 saving was not worth the inconvenience caused to the public by closing the toilets.

But Cllr Kravis told them: "I can't believe anyone is trivialising a saving of £2,300 - it would be awful to lose a grant to Engage or the CVS as we give both organisations a similar amount of money each year.

"If we don't find that money through winter closures we will have to find the money from somewhere else.

"We are all absolutely aware of the massive financial problems we are facing.

"We are making savings to try and keep our toilets open."

Mr Lang stressed the new car park signs had been bought from the 2010/11 car park maintenance budget and there was no impact on the current 2012 budget pot.

Asked if the council had been sued by people slipping on ice in local car parks, Mr Lang said: "We get a number of claims most winters."