Council ‘in dark’ over prison site

OPPOSITION is mounting to Chadderton being named as a potential site for a 1,500-inmate prison — after it emerged Oldham Council knew nothing about the plans.

Local Conservatives say they are totally against a jail being built on land between Foxdenton Lane and Ferney Field, near to Radclyffe School and parkland, and will do everything possible to prevent it.

There has been much anger against the Government proposal after it was exclusively revealed by the Evening Chronicle this week that Chadderton was on the Ministry of Justice’s list of potential sites.

Tory Councillor Eileen Hulme was contacted by a constituent several weeks ago about the possibility, but when she contacted the council was reassured there were no such plans.

Principle planning officer Paul McGrath wrote to her saying: “Let me clearly state there are no proposals in the consultation documents for a prison on land at Foxdenton, nor indeed are there any proposals for a prison elsewhere in the borough.”

But Justice Secretary Jack Straw has since shelved a £1.2 billion Titan prison programme that would have created three, 2,500-place, jails and is proposing to build five smaller prisons instead.

Local Conservative leader Councillor Jack Hulme, husband of Eileen, said: “Once we got that letter we thought it was a scare story you get from time to time and was totally nailed, but then we read the Chronicle story and it’s all wide open again.

“I don’t think the council knew anything about this. I think the Government is being extremely devious on this. They were all set to build three Titan prisons but are bankrupt and don’t have the money to build them so they fall back on plan B, which is smaller, if you like, local prisons and we seem to be on a hit list we knew nothing about.

“We are totally opposed to it. It’s highly inappropriate on several grounds.”

He said it would be between two schools with around 4,000 pupils in each, had caused concerns for residents living near-by and would damage the environment.

“It’s in effect the only patch of real open space greenery in the whole of Chadderton, which will be removed for, of all things, a prison,” he added.

He is to contact Conservative Central Office in London and MEPs to see what can be done to stop it.

Oldham West and Royton Labour MP Michael Meacher has already opposed the idea saying Chadderton would be a disastrous choice.

He is reported to have said the 76 proposed sites on the list have now all been totally discounted.

But the Ministry of Justice told the Chronicle it has started a fresh exercise looking at each of the sites again — and has not ruled out any of them.

Mr Straw claimed prisons soon gain community support after being established as they are a source of secure, well-paid employment and have no adverse effect on house prices or crime rates.