The cost of new housing for HMP Werrington's growing number of Death Row inmates will exceed estimates by nearly £20 million, and the compound could run out of space soon after it is completed, according to a city auditor's report released on Friday.
The auditor's new £200 million price tag for the project, which is expected to be completed by 2015, is new bad news for a city council facing millions of pounds in budget shortfalls.
"This is a giant bollock of a black hole," said councillor Caecilius Holt. "It's a never-ending gravitational force that'll continue to suck away Stoke's money that should be spent on local government, education, health and hog roasts."
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| HMP Werrington's current Death Row |
The new complex would house a maximum of 1,000 death row inmates, providing adequate capacity upto 2000 if most inmates are housed two per cell, the report said. But if plans for double-celling are challenged in court and the council loses, HMP Werrington could run out of space in three years. "We would simply go back to square one after having spunked all this money," said councillor Jamie Muffman.
Plans for new housing for HMP Werington's Death Row inmates got its initial boost five years ago when prison officials requested £100 million and the council elders approved the spending. New facilities were needed, prison officials said, because the existing units don't meet Stoke's standard for maximum-security facilities.
The city council placed its latest construction cost estimate at £200 million, with extra funds to be raised by selling advertising space on prison walls and on prisoners themselves.
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