Calls again made for Secretary of State Dominic Raab to visit site of proposed super prison near Harborough

Calls have once again been made to Secretary of State Dominic Raab to visit the site of a proposed super prison in Gartree.

An appeal into the site recently concluded, with a planning inspector hearing reasons for and against the £300million category B prison, which would be built next to the current 57-year-old HMP Gartree near Harborough. A decision will be made by the Secretary of State next year.

And with Dominic Raab once again holding the position, an invitation to visit the site has been issued by Cllr Phil Knowles.

He previously asked Mr Raab to come to Harborough, before extending the invite to Brandon Lewis when he was made Secretary of State. Neither visited the town.

But with Mr Raab back in the cabinet under Rishi Sunak’s as Prime Minister, the local councillor hopes he will take time to visit the proposed site of the 1,700 inmate facility.

In a letter to Mr Raab, Cllr Knowles said: “With you having been returned to your previous post, literally just days after the public appeal hearing closed, I wish to repeat my invitation. Please come to Market Harborough, meet with me and others and see the super prison site for yourself.

“This application is of serious concern to the local community. As Secretary of State you can intervene and stop this unacceptable industrial scale development.

“We are confident of the reasons not to build. If you are confident of your arguments please take up my invitation and come and talk with us.

“Time is short and I appreciate your diary is under constant pressure but the decisions of your department to pursue this will impact on so many. Please talk with us and perhaps consider even withdrawing the appeal and accepting the decision of the planning committee.”

The appeal by the Ministry of Justice was held after Harborough district councillors unanimously voted against the decision earlier this year citing concerns about the impact of traffic and developing on open countryside.

There had also been some 364 objections. A petition against the development also received some 2,000 signatures.

But the MOJ argued the plans would bring great investment to the area.