![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_TCB250925CreateCentre1BRI.jpg\")
The Create Centre at the Cumberland Basin area of Bristol is one of the affected locations(Image: Create Centre)<\/p>\nIt follows intervention from Bristol Live and a local councillorThe Create Centre at the Cumberland Basin area of Bristol is one of the affected locations(Image: Create Centre)<\/p>\n
Council chiefs have conducted a U-turn after increasing the charges for community groups and charities to hire a council venue for just one evening from \u00a3200 to \u00a31,500 – after intervention from a local councillor and Bristol Live<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bristol City Council<\/a> brought in a corporate and wedding venue management company to take over several of the publicly-owned event spaces, including the M-Shed, City Hall itself and the Create Centre at the Cumberland Basin. Bristol Live reported that local charities and groups<\/a>, like the Bristol Naturalists\u2019 Society, were told that hiring the Create Centre for its monthly meeting would now cost \u00a325 per person, plus VAT, instead of an hourly booking fee – which hiked the cost of their regular meetings from around \u00a3200 to a whopping \u00a31,500.<\/p>\n That was branded \u2018ridiculous\u2019 by one city councillor<\/a>, and Bristol Live highlighted the plight of community groups left priced out of booking council-owned venues. But now the council has admitted it \u2018may not have\u2019 told the venue management firm, Restaurant Associates, that local community groups and charities should not be charged the same as corporate bookings, and the council has conducted a U-turn and reverted the costs back to what they were before.<\/p>\n Cllr Andrew Varney (Lib Dem, Brislington<\/a> West) said the increase quoted to the Bristol Naturalists\u2019 Society was a \u2018ridiculous situation\u2019 and added: \u201cHow can this be justified?\u201d<\/p>\n Cllr Varney called on the council to think again and told Bristol Live: \u201cThese new fees are prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of our local clubs and societies. Asking over a thousand pounds so that a local group can use a room for a couple of hours is ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: Community groups stunned by ‘ridiculous’ new cost of hiring council venues<\/a>READ MORE: Disused Bristol site WILL be redeveloped despite arson devastation<\/a><\/p>\n
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Andrew Varney was elected in Brislington West in 2021(Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n