North Somerset Council has been put up for sale on Ebay – attracting a highest bid of £50.

Former councillor and the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for the town, Mike Bell, decided to auction off the authority – and all of its 46 Conservative councillors – on the internet auction site.

The lot includes the town hall and Tory councillors but not the council's staff, and so far 20 bids have been made.

Mr Bell struck on the idea of selling off the authority to highlight the council's plans to privatise the running of some of the resort's major facilities.

The authority is considering contracting out the running of the Winter Gardens, Playhouse Theatre, North Somerset Museum and the Tourist Information Centre in an attempt to save money.

Council bosses are drawing up an action plan to save £7.2 million over the next two years.

It is understood that about £2.5m will come from the development and environment department which oversees leisure facilities.

Council bosses have stressed that the investigation is only in its very early stages and no final decision on the future of the facilities has been made.

Mr Bell, a former executive member for finance on the council, said: "I saw the proposals to sell off Weston's crown jewels and thought what we really needed to do was to get rid of the Conservative councillors.

"Obviously in the real world we can't sell the council or the Tory members, but this was a tongue-in-cheek exercise to highlight what the authority is planning to do.

"People are fed up with cuts and constant plans to flog assets off and putting it on Ebay was a way of highlighting what is happening."

Bids close on Friday, December 11, and Mr Bell has stated there is a "no return" policy.

The successful bidder will be sent a photo of the town hall and all money raised as a result of the sale will go to support Weston's RNLI.

The council's deputy leader, Councillor Elfan Ap Rees, described Mr Bell's actions as "childish".

Mr Ap Rees said: "Our priority is to look after our growing elderly population and the next generation, and not running loss-making facilities that for years have bled the taxpayer and would be much better run by businessmen and voluntary trusts.

"This is a childish response from Mr Bell. Local people want to see a low council tax, firm priorities and an end to wasteful council expenditure."