Huge turn out for at Titan meeting?

A MASSIVE turn out is expected at next week’s meeting of Warrington Borough Council as a result of growing fears that a Titan “super-prison” could be built on the Omega development site.
Town Hall bosses have decided to switch the meeting, on Monday, November 3, to the Parr Hall, to accommodate the large crowd expected.
Two motions are to be put to the meeting – one by Liberal Democrat councillors Jo Crotty and Keith Gleave and one by Labour’s Terry O’Neill and Paul Kenny.
The Labour motion also condemns the council leadership for what it calls “astounding incompetence” over the issue.
Council chiefs have also agreed to change the order of business at Monday’s meeting so that the prison issue is debated first.
The Lib Dem motion will express concern over the impact on the future development of the Omega site should the prison be built and reject any proposal for a Titan-style prison anywhere at Warrington.
It also rejects the whole concept of prisons for up to 2,500 prisoners on the grounds of wellbeing and safety for both inmates and staff and calls on the Government to rule out the building of a Titan-style prison at Omega.
The Lib Dems also call on Warrington’s MPs to vote against such a proposal in Parliament.
Labour councillors, in their motion, note that no decisions have yet been taken on sites for new prisons but oppose any proposal for a new prison at Warrington.
It applauds Warrington’s two MPs, Helen Southworth and Helen Jones for their “swift action” in seeking a meeting with the Prisons’ Minister to put Warrington’s case.
Labour accuse the controlling Lib Dem-Conservative administration of mishandling of the situation.
They say the town’s interest would have been better served if the leader and deputy leader of the council, Ian Marks and Keith Bland, at a private meeting with developers, had not discussed the issue but instead “killed it stone dead.”
The Labour motion goes on: “Having discussed the siting of a prison on Omega they have since totally mis-handled the situation and their incompetence is astounding.
“They should have a least disclosed their knowledge of the possibility of a new prison with the opposition on this council and the town’s two MPs in order for us to have mobilised a concerted campaign to oppose it.”
Finally, Labour blame the council for failing to make sufficient progress on the development of Omega over the last two years and state that Omega should remain a site for high tech businesses providing well-paid jobs for the people of Warrington.