COUNCIL chiefs say investing in a listed historical building with connections to the Brontës will ensure it has a long-term future whilst remaining in public ownership. There was cross-party support for a plan to turn Gomersal’s Red House, formerly a museum, into a short-term holiday destination and intimate wedding venue. In proposing the £600,000 project to Kirklees Council’s Cabinet yesterday, senior councillor Graham Turner described it as “something of a departure on how we would normally deal with assets that we can no longer afford to keep, and which we have no strategic need for.” The Grade II listed 19th century manor house will be comprehensively refurbished and sympathetically remodelled to become a five-star high-end luxury holiday home for commercial holiday letting, accommodating 10 people within five bedrooms to be let as a single holiday cottage unit.