One of Gloucestershire's best known entertainment venues is being advertised for sale amid continuing uncertainty over its future.

Stroud District Council has started the next stage in the year-long process to decide what happens to  the Subscription Rooms in Stroud, by placing the building on the open market.

Bruton Knowles, the Gloucester-based commercial property agent, will be marketing the building on behalf of the council.

The Sub Rooms is the only council-owned and run arts and entertainment facility in the district.

In 2016, the council spent £415,000 on running the venue, and in October decided to look at its long-term future.

Three options were approved for investigation: keeping the building under council control; allowing another organisation to run the Sub Rooms as a public arts and cultural facility; or to sell it on the open market.

The first two options are already being considered, with nine organisations expressing an interest in running the facility so far, and it is now time for the final option in the process to be explored - advertising the property for sale.

The council's preference is that "any solution should not only improve the cost effectiveness for the public but also seek to retain its availability to the public for cultural use."

Cllr Doina Cornell, vice-chair of the council's strategy and resources committee and chair of the group tasked with assessing the options for the Sub Rooms, said: "Councils are under increasing financial pressure so we have to ensure we are providing value for money services.

"We are committed to finding the best way to secure the future of the Sub Rooms, and this is one of three options we need to explore.

"No decisions have been made yet, and putting the Sub Rooms on the open market does not mean that we are selling it.

"It's just one of the options we are investigating."

The closing date for all bids to either run the Sub Rooms or to buy the venue is Friday, 15 September and the final decision will be made later this year.

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Picture credit: geograph;  copyright Graham Thomas  and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence