The city council poured another £22.5million into Bristol Beacon last year – more than it spent on building new homes, expanding schools or low-carbon energy projects. An opposition councillor has criticised the decision as a 'massive drain' on the authority’s finances, with every penny instantly written off and the concert venue continuing to be valued at zero in City Hall’s accounts because more is being spent than the building is worth.
Bristol City Council says the true value of the investment to the city’s economy will “ultimately dwarf” the financial costs of the works. As previously reported, the cost of the renovation has almost tripled from an original £48m to £132m after the state of the Victorian hall was found to be a 'worst-case scenario', with discoveries including hollow pillars holding up roofs, unknown Elizabethan well shafts and structurally unsound hidden arches that were just covered up.
The refurbishment costs had already soared to £107m before mayor Marvin Rees’s cabinet approved an additional £25m in January, just as it was announcing widespread cuts to services to balance the authority’s annual budget. That took the council’s contribution to the revamp from an initial £10m to £84m.
