Prison could expand to help overcrowding crisis

A prison from which three inmates recently absconded could soon expand to help ease the national overcrowding crisis.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has put in a planning application to build two new blocks to house 120 prisoners at HMP Leyhill, in South Gloucestershire.

The Category D open prison hit the headlines in January when three men, including a convicted murderer, absconded.

In planning documents submitted to South Gloucestershire Council, architects said the project aligned with the MoJ's goals "to ensure prisons offer safe, productive and decent living and working environments" and "safeguard the public from offender-related harm".

The new blocks would also help the department "diminish reoffending rates and enhance the prospects for offenders", they added.

As well as creating new accommodation, the plans for the two-storey blocks also include a healthcare unit, workshop, boiler house and offender management unit, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Councillors on the development management committee will vote whether to permit the plans on 5 March.

According to a council planning officer report, Cromhall Parish Council is objecting to the plans, on the grounds it would increase the inmate population at the prison "with a history of absconds", raising fears the local community faces a greater risk of crime.

However no local residents commented on a public consultation about the planned expansion.

In December the government said it was pressing ahead with "the biggest jail expansion since the Victorian era".

HMP Leyhill was previously a wartime hospital, before opening as a prison in 1946. The prison was then rebuilt in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

There is currently a capacity of around 500 inmates, but over the next few years this could gradually increase to more than 800.

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