The toppled statue of Bristol slave trader Edward Colston is set to be displayed in a city museum – horizontally and still smeared with paint – and its former plinth topped with temporary artwork but sometimes left empty, a commission has concluded independent.

After city-wide consultation, the We Are Bristol History Commission has recommended that the statue be kept in the damaged condition it was in when it was recovered from the port after being pulled down and dumped in the wharf. It was displayed in the city’s M Shed museum alongside information on the history of slavery for people of African descent.

The commission said the city center plinth should serve as a focal point for temporary rooms and activities that reflect significant issues for Bristol, including the slave trade, and also sometimes be left empty to remind people of the plight of the statue.

Professor Tim Cole, chairman of the commission, said there were irreverent suggestions from people about what should happen to the statue, which was toppled during a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020.

One of them claimed that the city was so divided that it had to be divided in two, half being placed in the museum and the rest on the plinth. A second person suggested putting it back on – but pulling it down and dumping it in the harbor once a year, a new “civic ritual”.

But Cole said the city was more united than expected, with 80 per cent of Bristolians saying it should be exposed. Of those in five who did not want it on display, half of that group said it should be returned to the plinth and a quarter said it should be destroyed.

The commission was pleased with the number of young people who took part in the survey, with four in five Bristolians aged 18 to 34 saying they were very positive or positive about the reversal. About half of people aged 65 and over were either very negative or negative.

Commissioners were surprised that Black/African/Caribbean/Black British residents were – by far – the least positive about the reversal. They investigated why, and comments from members of this group suggested that they did not like the fact that it could be considered an illegal act.

Men were less likely than women to be positive about the statue’s fall, but there was no difference in attitude in rich or poor parts of the city.

Wording suggested by the commission for a new plaque includes the phrase: “In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the celebration of Colston came under increasing scrutiny, given his prominent role in subjugating Africans.”

Some may want more details – he has become the equivalent of a modern chief executive of the Royal African Company, which sent 84,000 Africans into slavery, including 12,000 children.

Cleo Lake, a former Lord Mayor of Bristol who has long campaigned to have Colston’s statue removed, has called for a permanent space in the city to tell the story of the transatlantic slave trade.

She said: “We need a dedicated space in Bristol to tell the whole story, accessible to as many people as possible and empowering people of African descent.”

The commission’s recommendations will be considered by the city’s mayor, Marvin Rees, and his cabinet in April.

Katie Finnegan-Clarke, co-founder of the Countering Colston campaign, said: ‘The commission’s report shows what we’ve always known: Bristolians have a strong, unifying belief in social justice, which means most people support the toppling of the Colston statue. . We hope Marvin will take this report as a green light to push for a permanent memorial for enslaved Africans in Bristol.

Last month, four anti-racism activists responsible for toppling the statue were cleared by a city jury after their defense claimed the monument was so indecent and potentially abusive that it constituted a crime.