1,500 prisoner jail plan shock

The site earmarked for the prison between the Radclyffe Athletic Centre (top) and Foxdenton Park (left centre).

Chadderton is on list of potential sites

CHADDERTON is being considered by Government as a potential site for a 1,500-inmate prison, the Chronicle can reveal.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw yesterday told Parliament he is shelving a £1.2 billion Titan prison programme that would have created three 2,500-place jails.

Instead five smaller prisons will replace the doomed superjails and the locations on the Ministry of Justice list, includes land between Foxdenton Lane and Ferney Field, near to Radclyffe School and parkland.

Titan prisons were expected to be built in the North-West, London and the West Midlands. Therefore it is likely two of the five sites could be in the region, creating 3,000 prison places.

Only two of the five sites have been identified, with one in London and a second in Essex.
The remaining three have yet to be confirmed.

Oldham West and Royton MP Michael Meacher said: “I would passionately oppose a prison in Chadderton and I will be backed up by everyone in the local community. I realise prisons have to be somewhere, but Chadderton is a picturesque and very attractive area in its own right.

“Chadderton would be a disastrous choice. I have very strong views opposing any such move and I am sure constituents will have and I would make these known to Jack Straw. I will be pursuing him in Parliament — as three sites have yet to be identified, we are going to have to get in with our retaliation first.”

Mr Straw told the Commons the right approach was to deliver an extra 7,500 prison places through five prisons holding 1,500 offenders.

And he said the prisons would not be “Victorian replicas, nor large warehouses.”

He said: “Once a prison is established in an area, almost without exception the local community becomes very supportive of it.

A prison is a source of secure, well paid employment and a focus for much volunteering. The research evidence which shows that prisons have no adverse effect on house prices or crime rates is then borne out by experience.”

Mr Meacher has repeatedly said the prison population is increasing too fast and called for a change in policy.

The Government has increased prison capacity by 24,000 places since 1997 and it remains on course to increase the total number to 96,000 by 2014.