Meacher bids to slam door on prison plan

OLDHAM MP Michael Meacher has stepped up his opposition to any plans to build a 1,500-inmate prison in the heart of Chadderton.

The MP for Oldham West and Royton has vowed to fight to stop the prison being built on land between Foxdenton Lane and Ferney Field, near to Radclyffe School and parkland, after the Chronicle revealed that it was on the Ministry of Justice’s list of potential sites.

Mr Meacher says that he was gobsmacked when he discovered that one of 76 sites originally being considered for the jail was in his constituency.

He said: “New prisons should be sited sensibly, in fairly remote areas (though not too remote to make it difficult to access for visiting families), and certainly not in the middle of built-up areas with a high level of residential density.

“Foxdenton Lane/Ferney Field is totally inappropriate because on one side it has two new secondary schools on which £70 million has been invested, and has housing on the other side.”

Mr Meacher has been in talks with the Ministry of Justice, which said that the list of 76 had been revised but that the Chadderton site remains an option.

He said he is willing to put down questions in the House of Commons and raise it in debate if Chadderton is not removed from the list.

He added that as well being situated too close to housing, businesses and schools, a prison would destroy an attractive greenfield space.

But Mr Meacher is also against the prison on the grounds that he believes it is not always the best way to deal with criminals, saying that prison numbers in the UK have rocketed by 60 per cent since 1995, while in Canada they have fallen by 11 per cent.

He said: “If the case for imprisonment — that compared with alternatives it reduced the rate of re-offending after release — were true, there might be a rationale for building more prisons. But it isn’t true.

“There are far too many mentally ill, illiterate, drug addict prisoners who would be far better managed and rehabilitated in small specialised secure units in the community where they can receive the treatment, education and training they really need.”