Eric Pickles has joined Warrington Conservatives in joining the fight against the Government Paln to charge commuters up to £1200/year to drive into Manchester. On a recent visit to the town it has become clear that, based on current plans, Warrington will pay a huge amount to finance the new Manchester Congestion Charge but will receive virtually nothing in return.

Officials fdid not even have an estimate of the number of cars which will travel each day from Warrington and therefore pay the charge. There do not appear to be any plans to upgrade public transport apart from "perhaps" a few more trains on a line which is already vastly overcrowded.

David Mowat says "that based on my estimate of 15,000 cars a day commuters will pay around £20million each year. This compares with a total current cost of £80million for Council Tax for the whole town. On that basis the town will take a hit of about 25% of the total Council Tax cost....this is just wrong........it is taxation without representation.......matters will not be allowed to rest as they are.........."

No to a Titan Prison in Whittle Hall?

Not Nimbyism....just commonsense.

A plan is being floated to include part of the Omega site  as a potential location for a new prison. It is proposed that such a prison, if built, would house up to 2500 prisoners. The site under consideration is 50 acres in the North West part of Omega just south of the M62 motorway.

It is important to understand that no planning application has been made and that no decision has been made.  Indeed the Omega Site is one of several (perhaps as many as 10) under consideration.

My view is that this proposal is wrong for the following reasons:

-Titan prisons are not the way to fix the current shortfall in places. New prisons are needed but they should be much smaller and more importantly, located nearer to the communities they serve. This would mean that re-habilitation is more likely to be successful and the risk of re-offending less.

-Warrington is already doing it’s fair share in terms of prisons in the locality. We have 8 separate establishments within 20 miles of the town centre. There has to be a reasonable limit on the number in our vicinity.

-This location is particularly unsuitable. There are several schools and a community centre in close proximity and the surrounding infrastructure is just unsuitable for a development like this.

-Omega itself was anticipated to be a showcase technology and business centre. If this prison proposal goes forward I believe this “Omega Vision” could be undermined.

I attended and spoke at  the recent meeting at the Whittle Hall Community Centre led by
Cllr Keith Gleave where the feeling of the residents was uniformly negative. I do not believe these feelings reflect “nimbyism” just commonsense.

There is every chance of getting this stopped. I would like to ask you to do three things to help me:

-sign our petition
-write to your MP, Mrs Southworth, indicating your views. Feel free to use some of the points set out in this letter but use your own words. She is well positioned to stop this but it is important she understands the depth of feeling.
-sign the Number 10 Downing Street Petition which has been set up.

In the meantime I will be approaching the Department of Justice  to make sure that Jack Straw is left in no doubt that we believe this proposal is wrong and should be stopped.

And finally please also sign our online petition.