P-05-781 Port Talbot Community Against the Super Prison – Correspondence from the petitioner to the Committee, 01.01.18

Dear Sir/Madam,

I was contacted recently to advise me that there is a meeting to consider my petition against the building of a super prison here in Port Talbot. The hearing date is January 9th 2018.

I was asked to send comments for the committee to take into consideration regarding the petition. I would like to submit the following statement for the committee's consideration:

When it was first announced that a super prison was planned for Baglan Moors, Port Talbot it was first met with disbelief. The site selected is a flood plain & is wholly unsuitable for a building of that magnitude. If built it risks water damage/subsidence issues to neighbouring business premises and over 2000 residential houses, a health centre that houses 5 doctors surgeries & a sheltered housing complex, all of these are within metres of this proposed site. There are also over 5000 school children all under a mile away from this site. As a town, over 8000 residents signed a petition in under 2 months to show how much we do not want or need this prison in Port Talbot. Had we had longer the petition would have been in 10's of thousands in strength.

There is a covenant on this land that states only business premises may be built on it. A prison is not a business premises. It is classed a secure residential building, therefore not in keeping with this covenant. We believe that the Welsh Assembly Government, as owners of this land should now remove this site from the list submitted to the MoJ for consideration as it is unsuitable for the use. We petitioned the Senedd back in September to show how much we as a town are against the idea of this prison. It will not bring jobs to the area as the MoJ promise, it will cause unnecessary increased pressure on our infrastructure, which is already struggling with one huge new super school.. another Welsh Medium super school is opening in September 2018 which is going to add to congestion. Imagine what a 30+ month build of a prison scale is going to do to the traffic situation? The proposed prison is a Cat C, rehabilitation prison which will encourage and support inmates leaving the prison daily to attend training placements and jobs within our community. Our community already has high unemployment, with inmates attending placements and jobs that SHOULD by rights be going to local people to alleviate our high unemployment figures. Residents surrounding the proposed site are naturally concerned about subsidence problems that would/could occur. A smaller housing estate has already had issues with structural damage from the build of the Welsh Medium School, imagine the damage the prison build could cause. These fears are real, this is how the residents of Port Talbot feel about this proposed built, should it go ahead.

We, the people of Port Talbot urge the Welsh Assembly Government & The First Minister to please reconsider allowing the Ministry of Justice to buy this site. Please remove Baglan Moors from the list of 'suitable' prospective sites for the super prison. The site is NOT away from residential areas or schools, it would be IN a community, it would stretch already stretched resources from our depleted hospital, our police force & our fire service.

Please do not sell the land to the MoJ

Yours sincerely

Victoria Griffiths