The Sherborne House Trust is fighting a decision by Dorset County Council to sell the 1720 Grade I-listed mansion in the spring.
The house is in serious disrepair and the council had hoped to maintain it by selling the land behind the building to raise the £2m-plus needed to restore it. But the district valuer estimates that the land was worth £750,000 less than this figure.
An independent report by Shea Debnam Associates also estimated that future revenues for the property would fall £50,000 short of running costs year on year.
Previous attempts to save the house failed when it lost out to Manchester's Victoria Baths in the first BBC Restoration series in 2004, and was turned down for a £3m Heritage Lottery Fund grant last year.
John Miller, the trust's chairman, said Shea Debnam's report contained "speculative figures, researched in three weeks". He also accused the council of jeopardising attempts to raise funds for the house by refusing to grant the trust a long lease, saying: "They [the council] want to dump the liability."
Hilary Cox, Dorset County Council's cabinet member for the environment, said: "We have bent over backwards to try to sort something out for a long lease, but after the property was turned down by the lottery, we asked the trust to scale down its ideas.
"We wanted a business case that stacked up, but try as we could, it came nowhere near."
Julien Hallsby, chairman of ArtsLink, which is based at the property, said the report was "fair and sound", adding: "There is a lot of emotion, but the decision has been taken on a purely financial level."
The sale would lead to six posts being made redundant - four funded by Arts Council England and two by West Dorset District Council.
Patrick Steel
The house is in serious disrepair and the council had hoped to maintain it by selling the land behind the building to raise the £2m-plus needed to restore it. But the district valuer estimates that the land was worth £750,000 less than this figure.
An independent report by Shea Debnam Associates also estimated that future revenues for the property would fall £50,000 short of running costs year on year.
Previous attempts to save the house failed when it lost out to Manchester's Victoria Baths in the first BBC Restoration series in 2004, and was turned down for a £3m Heritage Lottery Fund grant last year.
John Miller, the trust's chairman, said Shea Debnam's report contained "speculative figures, researched in three weeks". He also accused the council of jeopardising attempts to raise funds for the house by refusing to grant the trust a long lease, saying: "They [the council] want to dump the liability."
Hilary Cox, Dorset County Council's cabinet member for the environment, said: "We have bent over backwards to try to sort something out for a long lease, but after the property was turned down by the lottery, we asked the trust to scale down its ideas.
"We wanted a business case that stacked up, but try as we could, it came nowhere near."
Julien Hallsby, chairman of ArtsLink, which is based at the property, said the report was "fair and sound", adding: "There is a lot of emotion, but the decision has been taken on a purely financial level."
The sale would lead to six posts being made redundant - four funded by Arts Council England and two by West Dorset District Council.
Patrick Steel
