Prisons Minister Gerry Sutcliffe To Visit Dover On Thursday

Prisons Minister Gerry Sutcliffe is due to visit Dover this Thursday to see the former Connaught Barracks site where an Open Prison is being proposed.

Local residents re-acted angrily when news of the prison plan was revealed last month, without any consultation. MP Gwyn Prosser and district council leader Paul Watkins are among those who have been leading the campaign against the plan.

Protest meetings have been held at nearby Burgoyne Heights and at Dover Town Hall, and a march took place through the town on Saturday, with some campaigners going to the barracks to fix placards to the perimeter fence.

Mr Sutcliffe had given an assurance that no decision would be made until he visited Dover, even though Val Whitecross, who is governor at the Immigration Removal Centre on Dover's Western Heights, had been named as governor designate for the new facility.

The Home Office has also said there is no intention to accommodate sex offenders at the prison, but protestors say it is the wrong place for an open prison, close to schools and opposite Dover Castle.

A petition has been organised and thousands of signatures have been collected already.

The prison would accommodate up to 300 people, and the Home Office says the number would gradually be built up, with no more than 200 in the first stage.