Warrington Residents Against Prison Proposal

The announcement is just out and it’s official:

There is to be no prison in Warrington.

The list of Prisons is as follows:

• Beam Park West (East London)
• Chelmsford (Essex)
• Belmarsh
• RAF Coltishall (Norfolk)
• Maghull (Merseyside)

In addition to the five listed above, Little Hey Prison (Cambridgeshire) is set to be expanded.

You can read all about it here.

Quote from Jack Straw on 27/04/09:

“I can tell the House that we will not be pursuing a prison on the Omega site in Warrington.”

Thanks to all of you for your sterling efforts over the last 6 months.  We couldn’t have done it without you.

We’ll update the site again soon - we just wanted to pass on the good news as soon as we heard it, but in the meantime, let’s sit back and take it all in.

You can rest assured that it’s down to all of your hard work and determination, as noted by Jack Straw on numerous occasions, and without it, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

Time to celebrate, relax and get on with our lives.

Update to follow…

Although possibly a little too late, the Ministry of Justice have, under the Freedom of Information Act, released the full list of sites under consideration for the building of Titan Prisons.

This list can be found on the MoJ Website - There are 76 locations on the list.  Two of them (yes, two!) in Warrington, one in Widnes, three in Wigan and one in St Helens (Stoke-on-Trent has 11 potential sites listed).

The two locations in Warrington are the Omega Development and one in Appleton - Dennow Farm.

It’s no wonder that the MoJ kept this quiet for so long.  According to one newspaper:

“They said it had been proving difficult to gain planning permission for the Titans. One proposed site, in Warrington, Cheshire, sparked ferocious protests.“

You bet it did.

Keep your comments coming - we’re reading every one of them.

We thank you for your support so far, and know that if we have to, we can rely on you all to come together again to fight the cause.  Just because the Titan Prisons have been scrapped, it doesn’t mean that the idea has gone altogether.  We are Warrington Residents Against Prison Proposal.

The Ministry of Justice will be announcing the list of the 5 proposed “smaller” (yet still very large) 1,500 place prisons tomorrow (Monday 27 April).  We’ll keep you updated.

After discovering that the government have less money left in the kitty than they thought, Jack Straw, MP, Minister for Justice has announced that he is scrapping plans to build any Titan Prisons.

You can read the full story here.

However, let’s not assume that our campaign is over just yet.  Whilst the scrapping of Titan Prisons is fantastic news for us and for everyone concerned, we have to face the reality that the Ministry of Justice have had their eyes on the Omega site for some time, and whilst it was on the list as being a “suitable” site for a Titan prison, we should assume that they are still looking at this site until we are either told otherwise or we see something sensible happening with the land at Omega.

Thanks to everyone who has contacted us today to discuss the news item, please keep your comments coming in, but what we would also ask is that you stay on board, keep visiting the site, as we are making progress - thanks to all of you - but we’re not quite there yet.

It looks as though the MoJ are using standard letters when replying to concerned residents.  Whilst it looks like a great deal of care and attention has gone into hand-crafting the response that arrives through your letter box or in your inbox, here’s a show of what’s really going on.  Note the casual use of search and replace and the schoolboy error of leaving in previous correspondents details.

Of course, we’ve blanked all of the details out, but we were surprised to find the full contact details of the person who last received this letter.  Interesting what the “Track Changes” feature can do.  We’ve only inclused the first page, but you get the idea.  You can see the letter in its intended format on the Letters to Residents page.

Response from the Ministry of Standard Letters - Click to enlarge

What a disappointing way to respond to a serious question.

Keep your letters going to the people on our Useful Contacts page - and let us know if you’d like us to publish any of the responses you get.