'It's not over yet - we'll fight third Chorley prison plan to the end,' say campaigners after fresh blow

A legal bid to overturn the government’s decision to build a third prison in a single Chorley village has failed.

Locals campaigning against the new jail in Ulnes Walton have been refused leave to appeal against the controversial plans.

However, they have vowed to pursue the one route left open to them in their near four-year battle to block the 1,715-inmate facility, on a site close to the existing Garth and Wymott lock-ups.

The Ulnes Walton Action Group (UWAG) had sought to launch a judicial review after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner chose, last December, to ignore the recommendation of an independent planning inspector by giving the green light to the category C prison.

It came after that inspector, Tom Gilbert-Wooldridge, said for a second time that the proposed jail should be refused permission – chiefly over safety concerns about the impact construction vehicles would have on the local road network during the five years it would take to build.

After considering UWAG’s appeal attempt, a High Court judge has now concluded Ms Rayner – acting in her capacity as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government – made a lawful and reasonable decision.

However, the group now has one final chance to see the jail jettisoned by applying to ‘renew’ its application for judicial review – and UWAG’s Emma Curtis told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that they are going to seize it.

“We always said, right from the start, that we would take this as far as we could go – we promised the local residents that and so that’s what we continue to do.

“But this is the last avenue – if we’re unsuccessful, then this will be the end of the road,” Emma acknowledged.

The renewal process will see barristers for both UWAG and the government present their case at an oral hearing before a judge, in contrast to the written submissions – from both sides – upon which the previous leave-to-appeal decision was based.

Emma says she remains “hopeful” the jail – which would act as a resettlement facility for men nearing the end of their sentences – will not get off the ground in the government’s chosen location.   But if it does, there will be around 1,000 more prisoners living in Ulnes Walton – over 3,700 in total – than there are villagers.

“We were successful at [two planning inquiries] – so we continue to proceed on the premise that we will try and get what the Planning Inspectorate [recommended].   [Angela Rayner]…decided to go against [that] and hasn’t given a full explanation of why, which is what we’re challenging,” Emma explained.

Detailed reasons for the judge’s refusal of UWAG’s initial judicial review bid were not published – but an explanation of the outcome of their final attempt to secure one is likely to be made public.  A date for the hearing is expected to be set in the coming days.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

The Ministry of Justice’s initial application for planning permission for the prison was rejected by Chorley Council in December 2021.   The government appealed against that decision and a public inquiry sat to consider the matter the following summer.

The then Communities Secretary, Michael Gove, took the unusual step of ‘recovering’ the appeal – meaning he had the final say, having taken the inspector’s recommendations into account.

Mr. Gilbert-Wooldridge said the appeal should be dismissed on road safety, greenbelt and visual appearance grounds, but Mr. Gove said in January 2023 he was “minded to” grant permission – if the highways issues highlighted during the inquiry could be overcome.

To establish whether or not that was the case, the inquiry was reopened in March last year and heard further evidence from the MoJ, Chorley Council and locals opposing the prison.

After considering the fresh submissions – which included a claim by a highways witness appearing on behalf of Chorley Council that HGVs could be travelling along the narrow Ulnes Walton Lane at a rate of one every 90 seconds during some periods of the prison construction – Mr. Gilbert-Wooldridge again recommended the appeal was refused.

He acknowledged that while new proposals to lessen the impact of the development on the local road network had “improved” the position since the first inquiry was held, “there remain unmitigated and uncertain effects that would exacerbate existing hazards and risk”.

To that end, he found that building the prison would “continue to have an unacceptable impact on highway safety” – and so would be contrary to elements of local and national planning policy.

While Angela Rayner agreed with some of the highways issues raised by the inspector, she considered they would cause only “limited harm”.

She considered that the remaining adverse impacts of the project should carry only “moderate weight” against the proposal, while giving “significant weight” to the actual need for the development.

The Labour government is committed to the previous Conservative administration’s policy of creating an extra 20,000 prison places – around 6,000 of which were delivered before they came to power. An early release scheme was implemented for over 5,000 prisoners last autumn, as jails neared capacity.