![\"Ashton](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2_Ashton-Court-Mansion.jpg\")
Ashton Court Mansion(Image: Reach Plc)<\/p>\nBristol city councillors voted to hand the property to a trustAshton Court Mansion(Image: Reach Plc)<\/p>\n
Ambitious plans to rescue and revitalise Ashton Court Mansion<\/a> have taken a huge step forward after Bristol city councillors unanimously agreed to hand over the historic, crumbling venue to a trust.<\/p>\n The continued deterioration of the Grade I-listed building<\/a>, which the local authority has owned since 1959, would be a ‘tragedy’ and ‘absolute vandalism’, the strategy and resources committee was told.<\/p>\n Members voted to enter into an agreement with Bristol Historic Buildings Trust, which will carry out urgent repairs and draw up detailed plans to create a bright future for the property after it warned the mansion faced a \u201ccatastrophic decline\u201d<\/a> if nothing was done soon.<\/p>\n Its proposals, which include repairing the leaky roof, installing a new heating, hot water and power system, sorting drainage problems, and sprucing up the ground floor rooms which are used for events, would give it a 125-year lease with the council retaining the freehold.<\/p>\n No rent would be charged for the first decade and then 10 per cent of profits would be shared with the authority.<\/p>\n In a statement to the committee<\/a>, Friends of Ashton Court Mansion (FAM) founder member Tish O\u2019Connor backed the plans and said the group was ‘seeking another kids\u2019 paddling pool to capture more extensive roof leaks’.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cFAM have studied the many decades of council-funded surveys, reports, and searches for a leaseholder.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have witnessed the coming and going of council reorganisation and officers with new ideas, various prevarications, and direction changes, never with the flourishing of this ancient building at the heart of decision-making.<\/p>\n \u201cAshton Court Mansion is on the National Buildings At Risk Register.<\/p>\n \u201cFAM knows the condition is not stable and we have no confidence that this flurry of engagement by the council will be sustained.<\/p>\n \u201cPut bluntly, this Bristol City Council<\/a>-owned Long Ashton Manor should be leased to a building-centred charitable trust with a vision for sustainable use, able to make a concerted effort at high-quality repairs and restoration, with well-managed finances and a ring-fenced income from mansion events and activities which can be reinvested directly back into the building.\u201d<\/p>\n Cllr John Goulandris (Conservative, Stoke Bishop) told the meeting: \u201cAshton Court Mansion is part of our heritage, it\u2019s part of our life.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an old saying \u2013 don\u2019t look a gift horse in the mouth \u2013 and this is a fantastic opportunity for Bristol.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s rare that you get a not-for-profit organisation willing to put in a lot of time and effort, with a lot of expertise.<\/p>\n \u201cThe alternatives in the report are pretty dismal. One is to do nothing, to let this beautiful building collapse. That would be a tragedy, absolute vandalism.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second is to find a commercial operator but that may be quite difficult given the condition of the building and I suspect any operator will have their eye on the land, not the building, so the solution we\u2019d get wouldn\u2019t be very satisfactory for Bristol.<\/p>\n \u201cSo there is only one show in town \u2013 without it, we would be in trouble. I am really excited by this proposition, it\u2019s a great offer and I would like to take it with both hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Cllr Patrick McAllister (Green, Hotwells & Harbourside) said: \u201cThrough no lack of goodwill but mainly lack of funds and expertise, this beautiful building has been left to deteriorate.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s do our due diligence as a council, let\u2019s make sure BHBT has the solid plan and the fundraising schemes they will need to pull off a project of this scale, but they have an excellent track record.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sensible thing would be to enter into this memorandum of understanding because this is a really exciting opportunity and you don\u2019t get this opportunity that often \u2013 once in 65 years maybe. This would save the council money.\u201d<\/p>\n Cllr Sarah Classick (Lib Dem, Hengrove<\/a> & Whitchurch Park) said: \u201cI\u2019m really excited about this and it\u2019s great to see something being done about Ashton Court.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m also really pleased about the decarbonisation programme and ensuring the building\u2019s sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n Council leader and committee chairman Cllr Tony Dyer (Green, Southville) said: \u201cThere is a lot of love and affection for this building.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a massively important part of our heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the authority needed to show \u201chumility\u201d, recognise its limitations, and hand over the mansion to the trust.<\/p>\n Cllr Tom Blenkinsop (Labour<\/a>, Avonmouth<\/a> & Lawrence Weston) said: \u201cI still have a number of practical concerns and considerations around this proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m voting yes because I want to see those proposals examined in detail.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to see where we go with this, but there are some unanswered questions.\u201d<\/p>\n After the meeting, BHBT founder Norman Routledge said: \u201cWe\u2019re absolutely delighted by the unanimous decision and deeply grateful to councillors for their faith in us.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a vote of confidence not just in the trust, but in the idea that Ashton Court Mansion still has a bright future ahead of it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to begin this journey together with the council and the people of Bristol, working hand-in-hand to bring this remarkable building back to life for the community for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Trust chair and former city council leader Simon Cook said: \u201cThis is an incredibly exciting moment for Bristol.<\/p>\n \u201cThe council\u2019s support allows us to begin proving that Ashton Court Mansion can thrive again, not as a private development, but as a living, breathing part of the city\u2019s cultural and civic life.\u201d<\/p>\n Once finalised, BHBT\u2019s business plan will be subject to a vote by councillors in four to six months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol city councillors voted to hand the property to a trustAshton Court Mansion(Image: Reach Plc) Ambitious plans to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[42642,15066,381,3893,748,527,393,4884,14144,10001,528,11518,62917,285,10750,16,15,10000],"class_list":{"0":"post-500186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-ashton-court","9":"tag-avonmouth","10":"tag-bristol","11":"tag-bristol-city-council","12":"tag-britain","13":"tag-conservative-party","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-green-party","17":"tag-hengrove","18":"tag-labour-party","19":"tag-liberal-democrats","20":"tag-long-ashton","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-southville","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-whitchurch"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115375497179924892","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}