Council checking out jail check-ins

LEICESTER’S Victorian prison could be converted into a hotel, a senior council official has suggested.

Planners are preparing for what happen after the potential closure 411-inmate jail in Welford Road.

Although the Ministry of Justice has said there are no plans to shut the category B facility the Government has said it is committed to phasing out cramped and ageing city centre prisons.

Leicester City Council said it wants to “get ahead of the game”.

Senior building conservation officer Justin Webber said: “We are speaking with our design colleagues about – if the prison did close – what could happen. Various people could of the have pointed to the former prison in Oxford which is a very good hotel.”

Oxford’s prison closed in 1996 and has subsequently been redeveloped to include a 95-room Malmaison hotel.

The latest inspection report for Leicester Prison, published in May last year, highlighted various problems with the complex.

Prisoners reported relative ease in getting their hands on alcohol and illegal drugs, particularly the synthetic cannabis Spice.

Violence had increased, with 102 prisoner on prisoner assaults in 2017, compared with 60 in 2016. Staff were assaulted 112 times in 2017, the highest figure on record.

The Victorian prison, parts of which date from 1828, remains shabby in some areas, but general improvements had been made where possible, inspectors said.

The prison is served by a car park in Tower Street which the council has also assessed for development.

It said any building on the site should be no more than three storeys high and that residential use would be most appropriate.

Other potential development sites the council has drawn up guidance for are a car park in Regent Road, another in Duke Street and the former Fenwick store car park between King Street and New Walk.

Mr Webber said: “We are not proactively seeking compulsory purchase orders but it gives us a bit of context if a project does come in.”