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.