Halfway house scuppered as residents object

Corrections have ditched plans for a prisoner rehabilitation facility on Bastia Hill after opposition from neighbours. Photo / Stuart Munro

Plans for a halfway house on Whanganui's Bastia Hill have been cancelled before residents had time to present a petition opposing the facility.

Department of Corrections staff visited some residents of Shakespeare Rd to provide them with "some general information" about how the department manages people in the community.

Residents who were not at home received a short letter advising them that the department was "looking at appropriate accommodation" in the area to reintegrate people coming back into the community.

Stephen Palmer, who lives in Shakespeare Rd said he did not receive the letter but was given a copy along with a petition that nearby residents were circulating in response to it.

The property at 64 Shakespeare Rd is currently empty and Palmer says he believes it was formerly an IHC centre.

"I live outside the immediate area that was canvassed and I obtained a copy of the letter that was attached to the petition and I certainly would not call it consultation," he said.

"I have written to Corrections and expressed my disappointment that I learned of the proposed facility second hand."

Palmer said he is supportive of community rehabilitation and believes that a different approach would have encouraged a more favourable response from the neighbourhood.

"Corrections must be aware of the reaction that this sort of proposal usually gets from neighbours.

"If they had provided a lot more information about what the facility would mean to the neighbourhood and what level of supervision there would be, I think the response would have been more favourable."

Palmer, a former Whanganui District Councillor, also pointed out that the proposed facility did not appear to fit the criteria for permitted activity in the Whanganui District Plan.

"We should have been able to make submissions to a resource consent application."

A Department of Corrections spokeswoman has confirmed that the proposed Shakespeare Rd facility will not be going ahead.

There has been no further response to questions about the proposal other than a general comment that community facilities are an essential part of the department's work.

Around 15,000 people are released from New Zealand prisons each year and thousands of others complete community sentences.