Our village will be home to Labour's SUPER PRISON

Villagers living close to the site of Labour's touted 'super-prison' fear their skies will soon be swamped by 'drug drones' and say it will soon be worse than when they lived in the shadow of Victorian gaol.

Deputy PM Angela Rayner recently pushed through plans for a third prison near Ulnes Walton - with the 1,700 incarcerated soon to outnumber the population of local villages.

Chorley Council dismissed the plan for a site, which is close to HMP Garth and HMP Wymott prisons, in 2021 but the Government has now given the go-ahead to build on green-belt land.

Ms Rayner overruled objections saying harms including the loss of green belt would 'clearly be outweighed by the benefits' and that 'very special circumstances exist which justify approval', the BBC reported.

Now concerned locals fear their new neighbours will bring all too familiar problems. 

Speaking to the MailOnline, Andrea Hallows, 49, a caterer, said: 'Why they want to build another prison here when they are struggling to run the other two they already have is beyond me.

'They can't get enough staff to work there as it is and the ones who do can't control the inmates properly because they are understaffed.

'I believe there is a massive drugs problem and I quite often see drones flying close to the prison. Are they trying to smuggle drugs and other illegal items into prison?

'I don't have any proof but if I had to bet on it, that's what I would say is happening.'

Engineer Mark Stuttard, 47, said: 'They are always flying drones over the prison to smuggle drugs in.

'They can fly the drones from a fair distance away, so they think they are safe from getting caught.

'I know about at least two incidents this year when drugs have been attempted to be smuggled in.

'One ended up in a police car chase and the suspects crashed their car not too far from here.

'The police arrested them but they could have easily killed someone when they were being chased by the police.

'One more prison is just going to make things worse, with more attempts to smuggle in drugs.

'The prison has already been rejected a couple of times, so the government needs to have a re-think.'

Trevor and Pat Symonds' former home was close to HM Parkhurst Prison, Newport, Isle of Wight, but they insist HMP Garth and HMP Wymott is already far worse.

Pat said: 'We are used to living close to prisons and lived on Parkhurst Road, and never had any trouble.

'But the prison here is worse.

'The area just can't accommodate a third prison. The roads just can't cope.

'The traffic is already bad enough with the two prisons.

'No one seems to have consulted the residents and taken their opinions into consideration.

'I realise prisons need to be built somewhere but I just don't think this is a suitable place.'

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Pat, 71, who worked in the NHS, added: 'The village will just become even busier.

'I also like to hope it doesn't affect house prices.'

Trevor, 80, a retired head chef, said: 'There seems to be a lot more trouble there at the weekends.

'You see police vans and fire engines driving down the lane and I can't imagine they will be going anywhere else but the prison.

'The road is already like a racetrack as it is and will only get worse.

'There will also be all the wagons and trucks going to the prison when it is being built.'

'If the prison is built, the prison population will be bigger than the village.

Trevor added: 'There is also the extra pressure that it will put on the NHS. Has this been considered?

'If a prisoner needs hospital treatment, they will be treated immediately and don't have to wait.

'More prisoners will just add to the pressure.'

Gary Mellis, 42, who works in sales, said: 'I have always been against it because the road is always very busy.

'In the mornings, it is really hard to pull out of my driveway because the traffic is so bad.

'It is the traffic which is my main concern, not living close to a prison. That doesn't really concern me.

Mark Gilson said: 'It was always going to happen with two prisons already there.

'I believe they had already bought the field at the road junction to the prison to create a roundabout to help with the traffic flow.

'The one negative is the number of people visiting the prison will increase.'

Jay Patel, 71, said: 'It personally doesn't bother me.

'I understand people's concerns but for me is it not an issue.

'There are already two prisons and prisons have to be built somewhere.

'There is no danger from living close to a prison and I would much rather have prisons than not.'

Julie Moorehouse, 40, said: 'For people born and bred in the village, having a prison close by is all they have known.

'The road can get busy at change over and visiting times but I'm sure traffic measures will be introduced to help this.

'As far as I am aware, the original plans were for three prisons, so building a third should hardly come as a surprise.'

Jennifer Mitchell, 31, a teaching assistant, said: 'I always know when it is visiting time.

'The roads are twice as busy and there are lots of unfamiliar faces around.

'The wives and girlfriends are easy to spot. They all have immaculate hair, big lips and are done up to the nines.

'They all arrive in big fancy cars, usually Range Rovers or something similar. They all seem to be well off.

'Who says crime doesn't pay?'

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Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Paul Parker, from the Ulnes Walton Action Group, said: 'At the second inquiry, the planning inspector has had a look at the renewed plans and decided [he was going] to recommend dismissal on road safety [grounds].

'I don't know what the [Secretary of State's] understanding is of planning or road safety matters – she has obviously got advisors – but she can then completely go against the independent view of the planning inspector.

'Now she has that right as a minister – but who would you trust?' he added.

He also questioned the wisdom of putting a category C prison – some of whose inmates could be eligible for day release in the run-up to the end of their sentence – in such a rural area.

'It's being built in the wrong place – it'd be better to put [the prisoners] into a local environment where they could get to work easily.

'There are alternative sites that the inspector agreed with us about, such as [the existing] HMP Kirkham and Stakehill Industrial Estate near Oldham.'

Since September the Government has been freeing thousands of inmates early in a bid to cut jail overcrowding by temporarily reducing the proportion of sentences which some prisoners must serve behind bars in England and Wales from 50 per cent to 40 per cent.

But prisons are still expected to reach critical capacity again by July.

MoJ figures show there were 86,059 adult prisoners behind bars in England and Wales on Monday, slightly higher than the 86,038 recorded at the beginning of last week.

The so-called operational capacity for English and Welsh men and women's prisons is 88,852, indicating there is now cell space for 2,793 criminals.

The latest data means the prison population is only 2.8 per cent lower than when the number of inmates being held hit a new record high of 88,521 on September 6, PA news agency analysis shows.

An additional 1,350 cell spaces tend to always be kept free above the overall operational capacity of the prison estate in England and Wales as a contingency measure so jails can cope with a sudden influx of inmates or change in the make-up of the prison population, according to the MoJ.