Opponents of the proposed prison at Ngawha are going to the top in their fight to stop the prison going ahead.
At an emotional meeting last night in Kaikohe a group of about 250 concerned members of the public resolved to lobby the Prime Minister Helen Clark to stop the 300-inmate prison planned for farmland near the small town.
A member of the Friends and Community of Ngawha Society who organised the meeting, Maryann Mangu, said they had resolved to lobby the Prime Minister Helen Clark directly.
Former prime minister David Lange, who has taken an interest in the community's fight and chaired the meeting at the Kaikohe War Memorial, also pledged to speak to Helen Clark himself, Ms Mangu said.
She said the community was opposed to the prison for several reasons including fiscal irresponsibility and the escalation of costs surrounding building of the prison.
Ms Mangu said serious environmental and geological issues involving the delicate geothermal site had not been addressed.
The Department of Correction plans to open the prison in Ngawha in 2002, pending the outcome of a resource consent decision due out this week, and Environment Court action.
The Department of Corrections project manager for the prison, John Hamilton, attended last night's meeting and said that the department had noted the opposition to the prison from those at the meeting. However, he said it was a "fact of life" that almost every community in New Zealand would feel the same way about a prison in their neighbourhood.
- NORTHERN ADVOCATE
Opponents of Northland prison to petition PM
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