A CAMPAIGNER who won a battle for a designated toad crossing point on a busy road says scores more of the creatures are dying because a council has not kept a promise to put up signs warning motorists.

John Beale and his teenage daughter Lucy were distraught at the number of toads they found squashed by cars on the road between Manaton and Bovey Tracy in South Devon.

The situation improved when they persuaded Devon County Council to step in four years ago. But now Mr Beale claims the council has failed to honour the agreement. He says he found 40 dead toads in one night in the area as a result.

Mr Beale took advice from environmental group Frog Life in 2006 and carried out a survey of toad crossings which he submitted to Devon County Council. The authority agreed to put up signs at the start of the mating season, to warn motorists to take care, and to take remove them once the danger has passed, to ensure the notices had maximum impact.

Mr Beale said the move meant fewer toads were crushed as they tried to get to their mating ground. But in recent years, he says the council has either failed to put up the signs or done so at the wrong time, rendering them useless. They have not been removed when they should have, and have been stolen.

Mr Beale believes the council's obligation should be simple. "They just need to put the signs up at the end of January to early February, and take them down at the end of March," he said. "I'm befuddled as to why they can't. When I phoned them, they initially said they didn't know anything about the agreement.

"It's frustrating. I see it as one man trying to wage a war against an army. One of the reasons these organisations exist is to take on things like this. They can't just agree to it, then appear to forget about it and leave it down to individuals like me to remind them."

Lucy Benyon, of Frog Life, which approved the crossing designation, said common toads were in decline, so stopping them from being squashed was "very important".

She said: "Obviously there have been some crossed wires at the council, but it really shouldn't be that difficult."

A spokesman for Devon County Council said: "Our contractors will be putting the toad crossing signs up as soon as possible."