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Prison plan is waiting in the wings

8:34am Friday 16th November 2007

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A PRISON could be built in Radcliffe if plans for 300 homes on the site of a former sweet factory are rejected, say developers.

The Property Alliance Group wants to use the 27-acre site off Dumers Lane to build houses, industrial units and a new park.

But Bury Council planning officers are recommending the plans be refused because the land is designated for industrial use.

The developers say they are now discussing the possibility of building a prison on the site as a back-up plan.

The news comes as the Government tries to deal with overcrowding in UK prisons and attempts to create 8,000 extra places.

Lee Charnley, head of industrial development at the Property Alliance Group, said: "We have been working with Bury Council on the plan for new homes for about two years and hope that it will be approved.

"We have had to look at other options and have been talking with the Department of Justice to see if it will be suitable to build a prison.

"The site needs something doing with it because it has been used as a drugs den and attracts vandals."

If the homes and office plan goes ahead, it would create 250 jobs. The Property Alliance Group would then plough some of the cash it makes from the site into building an office block on 90,000 sq ft of land it owns in Carlisle Street, Radcliffe. That project would create 500 jobs, it said.

The council's planning committee will consider the application on Tuesday.

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Sun Tzu, Bolton says...
9:47am Fri 16 Nov 07

The residents in this area need to realise that they can raise objection to either plan. They also need to ask themselves, is this prison plan just scare tactics by the developer, designed to quash opposition to their preferred option.

I don't dispute that this brownfield site should be built on. What I do call into question is the motives of the developer in making the alternative known.

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BWFC-TIL-I-DIE, BOLTON says...
9:56am Fri 16 Nov 07

a 27 acre prison in radcliffe???!!! the streets will be empty!!!!!! it'll be like a 5 star hotel for residents of radcliffe..

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gazz_ball - Supera Moras!, bolton says...
10:14am Fri 16 Nov 07

Why build a prison in Radcliffe?

For one thing, no one ever gets more than a slapped wrist anymore, and secondly, there is one just down the road in Prestwich.

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Sun Tzu, Bolton says...
10:29am Fri 16 Nov 07

gazz_ball - Supera Moras! wrote:
Why build a prison in Radcliffe?

For one thing, no one ever gets more than a slapped wrist anymore, and secondly, there is one just down the road in Prestwich.
If we had more prison space, then theoretically we could give out more custodial sentences. In reality it probably means cells with en-suit bathrooms.

Seriously though, we do need more prisons. The government has neglected this area and now we are having to release dangerous people who will re-offend back onto our streets. It doesn't matter where the prisons are or that we already have one near by. It's not like they have a daily commute is it?

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gazz_ball - Supera Moras!, bolton says...
10:43am Fri 16 Nov 07

Doesn't bother me either way. Not from round there, agree more prisons are needed, but also a tougher justice system

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wifey, breightmet says...
10:45am Fri 16 Nov 07

id sooner have a bloody scrap yard there,go deep out into the sea and build on island for them all to live on! we'll send a plane over with bread and water! lol if only! there be on escapees then would there! they'd drown in the sea trying lol we'd live a better society!!

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BWFC-TIL-I-DIE, BOLTON says...
11:58am Fri 16 Nov 07

wifey wrote:
id sooner have a bloody scrap yard there,go deep out into the sea and build on island for them all to live on! we'll send a plane over with bread and water! lol if only! there be on escapees then would there! they'd drown in the sea trying lol we'd live a better society!!
YEP... AGREE WITH THIS... SURELY THERE MUST BE SOME OLD OIL RIGGS OUT THERE TO BUILD A FEW JAILS ON...

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Hamish Macbeth, Whitefield says...
2:10pm Fri 16 Nov 07

Sounds like the developers are wielding a thinly veiled threat - houses or a prison.
Well - why not have a prison...
(1) There will be some jobs for local people - Radcliffe could really do with another employer.
(2) The prison will have a wall around it - no doubt be landscaped and probably have less of an impact on local services than hundreds of new houses.
(3) They usually landscape prisons in to the surroundings - so it could well be more pleasing on the eye than loads of new boxes.
(4) We urgently need more prison spaces.

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wifey, breightmet says...
2:29pm Fri 16 Nov 07

bring back decades ago! hang the feckers lol there be more space then! less murders,less child abuse and less rapes

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mukarram, bolton,lancashire says...
2:39pm Fri 16 Nov 07

NO More prisons. Shoot the murders, chop of the hand ofthe thives, rapest should loose their dick. I f not possible, sentd them to Iraq, and if they survive, than will think about pardon.


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gjb, Bolton says...
3:14pm Fri 16 Nov 07

Mukarram,
I would suggest that many problems with crime originate from a lack of a decent education.
It is obvious to me, with your ill informed and poor command of the mother tongue,cannot be taken seriously.
You are a real example of why referendums should not be held on important topics,but left to people who can evaluate and debate the issues fairly and equatable.

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OldBoltonian, says...
4:24pm Fri 16 Nov 07

Very good mukarram, let's bring in sharia law wholesale eh? Bet you'd love that.

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Becki, bury says...
3:33am Sun 18 Nov 07

Kids get away with the attitude at school and at home they go and do wrong and end up in a playground of a prison lock them up yes but in the day make them work clear the canals give them all the realy horrid jobs and save the goverment and public money as they cost us a fortune to keep them in a hotel go back to the old days bread and water is good enough for the scum who end up in prison. And yes Radcliffe will be empty when they get more police putting them in a cell where they belong Radcliffe is full of jailbirds and they are training the kids to follow cause the parents let them out to all hours. And they go to the Radcliffe school's and at the end of it cant read and write so what do they do go on drugs and drink and offend and end up in a mess and if they can get a job they are lucky. So its up to the parents and teachers. we will always have bad but the percentage has got worse over the yrs why
quote

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Kirst, says...
8:24am Sun 18 Nov 07

I would have to dispute that " Radcliffe is full of jailbirds"... It is ignorance such as this that breeds the negative behaviour we are seeing more of these days.. I grew up on Dumers Lane and i am a sucsessful educated woman with 3 polite, respectful, and well educated children... Anyway, back to the topic, whether its a prison or homes, as long as it provides a form of employment for the residents that should be the focus...

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