A cash-strapped council is selling off its paintings to make ends meet.

Adur District Council has been forced to sell the ten paintings, currently hanging in its civic centre, to balance its books.

Councillors plan to invest money made in the sale of the collection - estimated in 1997 to be worth £21,000 - to earn about £1,200 a year in interest.

Conservative group leader Neil Parkin said: "It's like selling the family silver to save the stately home. I can't believe it has got to this but the situation is dire and we need everything we can get."

Sotheby's South in Billingshurst valued the artwork four years ago. The highlight of the council's collection is an oil painting of Shoreham signed by landscape artist James Webb. It was painted in 1888, seven years before his death.

The painting has hung in the council's planning department for years and Sotheby's valued it at £10,000.

Other artworks include a watercolour of Shoreham Power Station and an oil portrait of a 17th Century naval captain.

Coun Parkin said: "A couple of them are real beauties but that's how bad it has got."

A spokeswoman for Sotheby's in London said they could not comment on the desirability of the paintings or how much they could raise.

The sell off is part of a package of measures designed to save more than £200,000.

Councillors' allowances have been frozen, fewer technical books will be bought and the repair and replacement of street nameplates has been cut.

Weekend shifts by public toilet attendants have been scrapped.

The council passed the budget on Thursday night after the Tories, who rule the council, and Liberal Democrats voted in favour.

All Labour councillors, who lost control of the council in the last local elections, voted against the proposal.

Group leader Mike Willson said: "The Tories proposed no efficiency savings, no innovation, had no new ideas and offered no long-term planning - just quick-fix, simplistic cuts to services.

"Adur residents must be feeling the monkeys have taken over the zoo. These paintings are part of Adur's history."