Local Liberal Democrats object to proposed Baglan gaol

Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats have joined the objections to Welsh Government land in Baglan being sold to the Ministry of Justice for a prison.  The prison being sited on the business park will tend to deter firms from setting up there and it will be a poor advertisement for Briton Ferry and Neath, being visible from the GWR main line. Although it is defined as a category C prison, there would be a danger of more dangerous convicts being housed there because of overspill from England's historically high prison population.

Frank Little, candidate for Neath in the general election, added: "As a matter of principle, Liberal Democrats object to 'super prisons' because they do not help rehabilitation as more local facilities do. We agree that town and city prisons built before the Great War should be replaced or extensively renovated to modern standards, but we should not lose successful initiatives such as Cardiff's 'Clink' restaurant.

"The need for more prison space is a direct result of not only poor rehabilitation - we need to increase prison staff to improve this, not reduce it, as government has been doing - but also of the Blair/Brown governments' creation of a new criminal offence for virtually every day they were in office."