Lancaster Castle - should it remain as a Prison?

Although Parliament may be in recess, that doesn’t mean that local MP Eric Ollerenshaw is off on his holidays! This week Eric has been out and about across Lancaster and Fleetwood, from Lifeboat Day at Fleetwood, Pilling Coffee Feast and the Maiden Bridge Arts Centre in Tatham up in the Lune Valley. Eric has also had meetings with local businesses in Lancaster, English Nature, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Department of Work and Pensions.

On Tuesday Eric, along with his Morecambe & Lunesdale colleague David Morris MP visited HMP Lancaster Castle. With the recent announcement from the Ministry of Justice regarding the potential closure of the Castle as a working Prison, Eric was keen to speak to the staff who work there.

Eric commented, “Although the prison may be deemed as unfit for the 21^st Century, it is actually an extremely high performing prison, graded 4th overall and the highest rated Category C Prison in the country.

The fact that the Castle performs so well despite it’s medieval conditions, is a credit to the staff who work there. There is a real community atmosphere and this helps with the rehabilitation of the prisoners, many of whom specifically request to come to Lancaster because of the successful rehabilitation programme.”

The opportunity to turn HMP Lancaster Castle into a visitor attraction would certainly place Lancaster on the international tourist trail and bring many more visitors to the City as well as being a major boost to the city’s economy. However there would be a substantial cost running into many millions of pounds to return the Castle to it’s original state as well as extremely high running costs required to simply maintain the Castle.

Eric will be meeting with the Prison’s Minister and the Duchy of Lancaster in the next few weeks to discuss the future plans for Lancaster Castle to hopefully be able to answer more fully, the many questions that we all have over Lancaster Castle’s future.

Eric campaigning against Canatxx back in 2008

The big news this week is that Canatxx are back with a new name,(Halite Energy Group) a new logo and a new PR campaign to convince residents of the benefits of storing gas under the River Wyre.

Eric Ollerenshaw, MP for  Lancaster and Fleetwood, is far from convinced.

 “They seem to think that they can have another attempt at gaining approval for this scheme by altering a few details and changing their name. I am certainly not convinced and I doubt Wyre residents will be either.”

“ Their last proposal was rejected after massive opposition from local residents, major concerns regarding safety and the suitability of the site, I myself helped to campaign against Canatxx’s proposals and I fail to see how this new plan would overcome the objections from Canatxx’s last failed attempt to gain planning permission and I will be raising in Parliament, alongside Ben Wallace MP, the principle of repeated planning applications of this nature.”

Elsewhere in  Lancaster & Fleetwood this week Eric has met with representatives from Job Centre Plus, Lancaster & District Homeless Action Service, the Chief Fire Officer for Lancashire and CancerCare Lancaster.