B&NES council is seeking a better and more high-profile location for Bath's Fashion Museum after it is forced out of the Assembly Rooms.

Deputy leader of Bath and North East Somerset Council Richard Samuel has asked officers to find a suitable spot not far from the Roman Baths and the Pump Rooms.

The Fashion Museum must move from the Assembly Rooms in March 2023 after building owner the National Trust decided to enforce a break clause on the lease.

The council, which owns the museum, has said it does not expect to be able to provide a new home for the internationally important collection until after 2026.

But Cllr Samuel, the cabinet member for resources, told a meeting of the ruling group on Thursday (May 20) that he had asked officers to come up with a proposal for a new location "that we can run with very quickly".

The Liberal Democrat representative for Walcot said: "This is going to be an expensive project.

"I have already charged officers with the task of bringing forward a tangible proposal to reprovide the Fashion Museum within what I call the historic quarter of the city – so within a few hundred metres of the Roman Baths and the Pump Rooms – because that is the place that all the evidence tells us is the best suited for such a facility.

"I'm hoping that we can actually improve on the current location.

"The Fashion Museum is a little bit tucked away, it's a little bit of a secret, and it's not the most easy place to direct yourself to.

"It's done very well in its current location for many years, but I'm looking to see if we can locate a new facility in a much more high-profile centre and use it as part of the springboard to see confidence returned to the northern part of the city around Milsom Street, which sadly is in decline at the moment because of the hostile conditions in the retail sector.

"I want to see a proposal that we can run with very quickly so that we can bid for the appropriate resources to help us develop this project.

"This is a collection of international importance and it's important for the visitor interest in Bath that we reprovide it."

The council has been a tenant of the Assembly Rooms since 1937, when the National Trust awarded a 75-year lease, which was extended for another 15 years in 2012.

But in 2019 the charity enforced the break clause in the contract and unveiled plans to develop an "immersive experience" in the property to share the history of Georgian Bath.

The council said in 2019 if it could not find a suitable new home for the fashion museum the collection's 100,000 artefacts would be put into temporary but appropriate storage.

It is seeking a highly visible central site with a flexible exhibition space and a dedicated learning area, according to a report to the cabinet meeting.

It also wants to create a collections centre to enable important items to be loaned to prestigious exhibitions elsewhere.