WARRINGTON may still be considered as a site for a giant new prison, local campaigners fear.
Political leaders have reacted with anger to a letter to the borough council from the Ministry of Justice which implies that the borough is within the area of a new search for a location for a new 1,500-place prison.
This would amount to a “U-turn” by Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who earlier this year announced in Parliament that Warrington was not being considered as a site for a prison.
The letter was addressed to council leader Ian Marks and his deputy, Keith Bland.
It states that finding an appropriate location for the prison is of “paramount importance”.
One of four areas on which the search is focussed is the North West and the letter adds: “As your council/organisation is within one of these regions, I wanted to write to make you aware of this new site search.”
Coun Marks said: “The implication is that a site in Warrington may be considered yet again for a prison.
“The council strongly opposed the siting of a Titan prison anywhere in Warrington and not just on Omega. We will be equally firm in our opposition to a new prison coming here.”
He has written to Warrington MPs Helen Jones and Helen Southworth asking for assurances that they will do everything possible to support the council in opposing another prison in the borough.
Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary candidate for Warrington South Jo Crotty, (above, right) who took a leading part in the earlier campaign to block plans for the prison on the Omega site at Warrington, attacked the apparent
U-turn by the Ministry of Justice.
She said: “Warrington already takes its fair share of prisoners, having eight prisons within a 20 mile radius”
“Labour policy has failed, and prison over-crowding is a complicated problem which the government cannot simply build its way out of. 
“This U-turn comes despite assurances given by Jack Straw in a Ministry of Justice statement on April 27 promising that no Titan prison would be built in Warrington now or in the future.”
David Mowat, (left) Conservative Prospective Parliamentary candidate for Warrington South, said: “It’s little more than four months to the General Election and completely impossible for Labour to make any progress on this before a likely change of government.
“The Conservatives are unequivitably opposed to Titan prisons in Warrington, in the North West or anywhere else in the UK.
“Nothing in the Ministry of Justice proposals links Warrington to this in any meaningful way and I don’t think it serves residents well to be alarmist prematurely.”
Action group, Warrington Residents Against Prison Proposal (WRAPP) said: “We are committed to holding the government to their word and will be contacting all concerned persons.
“WRAPP will continue to strongly resist the siting of any new prison within Warrington.”
Justice Minister Maria Eagle said: “A shortlist of potential sites will be published in the spring but I
can confirm that there are no plans at present for a new prison in Warrington.”
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3 Comments
It’s a good job the group wasn’t called Cheshire Residents Against Prison Proposal !!! (CRAPP)
This type of scaremongering is a pathetically obvious political tactic.
When will politicians realise that insulting people’s intelligence isn’t the way to get votes.
When it comes to the ballot box it’s not words but ACTIONS that counts.
With one of the finest examples of Warrington’s heritage under threat in her ward, one might have expected some effective action in that direction!.
But Sha, the woman is from the Midlands and is only here because she is after a parliamentary seat and a life of expenses and finary. She cares not one jot about Bewsey Old Hall because as you have said, she would be making a few more noises than we have heard from her so far. She is a chancer and I wouldn’t mind betting that if she doesn’t get into Westminster via Warrington at the next election, you won’t see her for dust as she high tails it back to Birmingham