Opponents of Northland's proposed new prison plan to lobby the Prime Minister in an effort to stop the prison from going ahead.
At an emotional public meeting in Kaikohe last night, a group of about 250 people resolved to lobby Helen Clark to stop the 300-inmate prison planned for farmland near the small town of Ngawha.
Maryann Mangu, of the Friends and Community of Ngawha Society, who organised the meeting, said it was chaired by former Prime Minister David Lange.
Mr Lange also pledged to speak to Helen Clark.
Ms Mangu said the community opposed the prison for several reasons, including fiscal irresponsibility and the rising cost of building the prison.
Serious environmental and geological issues involving the delicate geothermal site had also not been addressed, she said.
Plans for the prison involved redirecting part of the Ngawha Stream during construction, which would irreparably damage it.
The group was also concerned that the socioeconomic impact of the project on the local community had not been assessed.
The meeting attracted people from all over Northland and as far afield as Wellington.
The Department of Corrections plans to open the prison in 2002, pending the outcome of a resource consent decision due out this week and Environment Court action.
The corrections' project manager for the prison, John Hamilton, attended the meeting and said the department had noted the opposition.
But he said it was a "fact of life" that most communities in New Zealand would feel the same way about a prison in their neighbourhood.
Northland-based Act MP Muriel Newman has criticised the prison's $100 million price tag and its site.
"The process in which the site was chosen needs investigating," she said. "It is quite crazy to be building a prison on a geothermal fault line."
- NZPA
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