Fire-damaged Grosvenor Hotel must be made safe, court orders

Crews from eight different fire stations attended the fire

The company that owns a derelict building gutted by fire has been ordered to make it safe within five weeks.

Bristol City Council took Earlcloud Ltd, which owns the former Grosvenor Hotel, to the magistrates court.

The council said the building was in a "fundamentally dangerous condition" after a fire on 18 October.

Magistrates gave Earlcloud Ltd until the end of the year to demolish the building or make it structurally safe.

Earlcloud Ltd director Nimish Popat said the company's preference was to get the site, a well-known eyesore close to Bristol Temple Meads rail station, re-developed as soon as possible.

Avon Fire and Rescue Service crews from as far afield as Bath and Weston-super-Mare were called to deal with the blaze that broke out overnight.

The service has since said it believed the fire was started deliberately.

Debris 'must be removed'

Closed for decades, the former hotel was the subject of a long-running battle as Bristol City Council tried to bring it back into use as part of the Temple Quarter Project.

The council took its civil application to the city's magistrates court claiming the building, which is close to busy pedestrian and cycle paths, was unsafe following the fire.

Earlcloud Ltd has the option of demolishing dangerous parts of the building, but was also told it must remove any debris that any demolition work created.

Mr Popat told the BBC that one option was for the city council to buy the building and the land it sits on.

Additional reporting by Steve Mellen