IT began as an ice idea and ended up as a thaw point. The much-hyped Christmas ice rink at Blackpool's Winter Gardens was a huge let down, according to some disappointed skaters.

Irene Olsen, from Huntingdon Road, Cleveleys, took her four-year-old grandson Lewis to the rink after school last Wednesday and was upset to find that the rink, in the Olympia exhibition hall, was not actually made of ice.

"The rink is not an ice rink," she said. "There's no ice. It's just slippery tiles. None of the children could stand up.

"My grandson goes to the rink at the Pleasure Beach, so he has been skating before. But nobody could stand up on this one.

"We had looked at all the posters advertising the ice rink and were looking forward to it. I think they should be prosecuted under the Trades Description Act.

"We would have been going a lot but we won't be going any more. Everybody was complaining. We tried to get our money back."

Half an hour on the ice costs £1.50 for children and £20 for adults, including skate hire.

Another mother took her eight-year-old daughter to look at the rink but decided not to bother trying it out. "It looked really grim. There was just a grey rink in a dismal room with what looked like a few bits of tinsel and stuff on the walls and a row of chairs. It was really disappointing."

But town centre manager Nigel Hanson said that complaints were unjustified and the rink was suitable for skating.

"It's a synthetic ice rink which goes all over the country," he said. "We've had hundreds of satisfied customers. I've not had any complaints. My staff would have come back to me and told me if there were.

"You can fall down on any ice or slippery surface. We are not forcing anyone to go onto it. It's not a Heath Robinson affair. It's a proper synthetic ice rink.

"We have had lots and lots of people who were delighted and saying they would come back next week. It's inevitable that there's going to be the odd person unhappy with something.

"But I can't see what she's got to complain about. We have got Christmas decorations round the walls. It's in a carpeted room and there are seats to sit down and watch.

"We charge the princely sum of £1.50 for children so it's not as if we are profiteering."