Still waiting to hear if Government is planning prison for Coate (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Still waiting to hear if Government is planning prison for Coate

SWINDON Council is still waiting for to hear whether the Government wants to build a prison at Coate.

Last month, the Evening Advertiser revealed how the Home Office had objected to the final draft of the Swindon Local Plan because it did not include provision for a prison.

This has fuelled fears that the Government could be planning to build a jail at Coate, near the Great Western Hospital and the site earmarked for a new Bath Uni-versity campus.

Swindon Council leader Mike Bawden (Con, Old Town and Lawn) is anxiously waiting for more details.

He said: "I haven't heard anything more about it, I am still in the dark."

Coun Bawden is horrified by the idea.

"I am totally opposed to it. A jail would be totally inappropriate and I would fight any move by the Prison Service to put a prison in a strategic location like Coate."

The Government says Her Majesty's Prison Service an arm of the Home Office should have a say in any major urban developments so it can decide whether it would be suitable for a prison.