'We can't afford it' Societies hit by 'ridiculous' venue hiring costs rise

COMMUNITY groups who have been hiring city-owned spaces to hold meetings and events have been left stunned after the council outsourced the venues to an upmarket corporate events company, which has now hiked the cost of hiring it by six times.

- Tristan CORK

One councillor said the situation was 'ridiculous,' and community groups have been left trying to find alternative venues to meet up in.

Bristol City Council has outsourced the private hiring of some of its most famous venue spaces to a company called Restaurant Associates. Included now in its portfolio is the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, the M-Shed, the Create Centre and City Hall itself.

Restaurant Associates market the venues they manage for corporate events and weddings and not, it seems, community groups and organisations like the Bristol Naturalists' Society. They have been meeting for the past few years in the lecture theatre at the Create Centre, the council-run former bonded warehouse eco-venue next to the Cumberland Basin.