Colchester will NOT get a prison!
April 27, 2009 12:00 AM
Colchester is not going to get a prison.
The assurance was given in the House of Commons this afternoon by Justice Secretary Jack Straw MP after he was challenged by Colchester MP Bob Russell.
Over the weekend the Government admitted that it had looked at various sites around the country to accommodate new prisons - and three of these were in Colchester: the former Severalls Hospital site and two at Stanway, at Stane Park and Stanway Quarries.
In a statement in the House of Commons today, Mr Straw identified two sites which had been selected for a new 1,500 place prison but said no decision had been made on the other three. Mr Russell observed that one of the sites was in Essex, at Runwell in the Borough of Chelmsford, and the other was in Metropolitan Essex on a former Ford Company site at Dagenham.
He asked the Justice Secretary whether any of the three sites at Colchester would now go forward to house a prison bearing in mind that the two already announced were in Essex. Responding, Mr Straw said that none of the Colchester sites would now have a prison.
Mr Russell also challenged Mr Straw as to what consultations there had been with Colchester Borough Council about the possibility of a prison being built in Colchester, but the Justice Secretary did not reply to that particular point.
This afternoon Mr Russell said: "I am sure that the communities in Stanway and north Colchester, and across the town more widely, will be relieved that a prison is not to be built in Colchester."
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