TRUSTEES who had hoped to take over the running of the jewel in Swindon’s crown say a shock decision by the borough council to retain control has put its future in jeopardy.

Lydiard Park Heritage Trust had been in negotiations with the authority for months. However negotiations stalled last week over the cost of work needed to deal with a backlog of repairs to the grade one-listed building and the two sides were due to put out a joint statement.

A survey carried out for the trust by a conservation architect revealed more than £4m of work needed to be done while the council’s own survey had only highlighted around £850,000-worth of ‘legacy maintenance.’

Chairman Mike Bowden was angered by the unilateral announcement and by cabinet member for heritage Garry Perkins’s suggestion that the trust was asking for a continuing subsidy.

“We put our heart and soul into this over two years,” he said.

Fellow trustee Sarah Finch-Crisp said: “We did not and never have asked for, or wanted, an ongoing subsidy. The principle is we would be responsible for all future maintenance and the council would be responsible for the backlog.”

Now the group, endorsed by the council last year as the preferred bidder, fears the much-loved house and park is in danger again, two years after the council decided to lease it to a commercial venture because it said it could no longer afford the £450,000 annual subsidy.

Mr Bowden said: “The parlous state of the mechanics Institute and well publicised concerns over the health Hydro show all too clearly what can happen if well-loved heritage and leisure assets are run by organisations that don’t have the necessary skills of interest to care for them.

“We were warned by many parties that attempting to work in partnership with Swindon Council would prove impossible, but we genuinely felt that Lydiard was too important to neglect and that a fresh opportunity existed to work with the council to create a more secure future for Lydiard.”

He added: “To be treated like this is a sad reflection of their ability as a local authority to embrace and work in a genuine way with community groups.”

He said the trust’s survey had been done at the suggestion of the council and showed extensive work was needed to address a decade of neglect. Surveyors from both sides met to agree the amount of repairs and to discuss the council doing the work itself on cost grounds. They agreed in November on about 80 per cent of the work, he told the Advertiser.

The trust also said the closure of the conference centre and the redundancies that followed were entirely avoidable.

It suggested the council did not have officers with sufficient knowledge of procurement, asset transfer and leasing rules.

“At best they failed to obtain appropriate professional advice or to undertake their own due diligence to ensure all relevant information was passed to bidders at the outset and would not create the issues they have now identified.”

In a statement the cabinet member for heritage Garry Perkins blamed the failure on cost.

“Unfortunately, we are just too far apart in our valuations for how much backlog maintenance and operational subsidy is required and, as a result, it would be unlawful to proceed with the transfer,” he said.

“This has highlighted that an agreement is not possible and that the trust’s bid does not represent the best value for taxpayers in Swindon.”

Because the council could not carry on with the transfer the house and park would remain under council control. It pledged to spend £850,000 maintaining and repairing the house and said it would look into options to improve the conference centre. It also said it wanted to work with local heritage enthusiasts and experts.

Historic Lydiard Park, once the home of the Second Earl of Rochester – portrayed by Johnny Depp in The Libertine – was saved for the people by town clerk David Murray John in 1943 at a cost of £4,500.