Drone drug deliveries turn prison into 'airport'
Plus: MP wants higher alcohol prices and firm put villagers at risk
Hello and welcome to the 67th edition of The Lancashire Lead. Read on for news of the Lancashire MP who wants to see alcohol prices raised, why the Government has again been upsetting Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and the company fined for putting residents at risk due to poor water management (clue: it’s not United Utilities).
First though, to prisons. We’ve heard so much in recent months about the prison population being full and about inmates being released early to free up space. But what about the conditions in the actual prisons themselves?
Well, a truly damning inspection report has highlighted just how bad things are at Leyland’s HMP Garth, where problems identified two years ago remain unaddressed and a whole host of new ones created since then.
According to one prisoner, the prevalence of drones delivering drugs through cell windows that he said the facility was “now an airport”. Meanwhile, the inspector noted:
“Prisoners were continually burning holes in the prison windows at a faster rate than they could be repaired. On the first day of inspection, 13 cells had windows with holes, five still occupied by prisoners.”
A survey of prisoners found almost two-thirds of prisoners said that drugs were easy to get compared with 44% at the previous inspection and 41% at similar prisons. Inspectors found that the smell of drugs was evident throughout, while the impact could “be seen in the increasing levels of violence, the full segregation unit and the large number of prisoners who wanted protection from their peers because they were in debt.”
Routine drug testing in the last year showed that a third of prisoners were misusing substances. But it’s not just drugs that proved to be an issue.
Assaults among prisoners had increased by 44% since the last visit, staff sickness levels were high and guards felt unsupported by management and had not had sufficient training.
Both prisoners and staff spoke negatively about the setting of behavioural standards within the facility and neither group saw much hope of it improving. Serious breaches of prison rules, including criminal offences such as violence or possession of drugs, were not dealt with effectively and the adjudication system was in “disarray”.
It was also found there were “very few consequences for prisoners who chose not to behave which was a critical weakness in a prison battling a substantial drug problem and the associated debt and violence”
The effects of insufficient staffing levels could be seen in inability to control behaviour and the failure to enable inmates to attend medical appointments and education lessons. Some will read that and say life should be difficult for prisoners but how can we expect to reform and rehabilitate people by removing any opportunity for improvement?
Identifying poor processing of new inmates, the inspection observed one person being brought in discussing feeling suicidal. This was not followed up in any way and when inspectors returned the following afternoon, he had not left his cell or been allowed a phone call.
In a worrying summary of his report, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor wrote:
“The governor had been without a substantive deputy for some and although he had a good understanding of the many challenges the prison faced, without better support from the regional team and the prison service Garth will continue to be a jail of real concern. Staff attendance and capability will need to improve significantly and without substantial investment from the prison service, drugs will continue to flow into this troubled jail.”
At the time of inspection, the prison was home to 810 inmates, above the ‘baseline normal capacity’ but within the operational capacity of 845. Of those, 96% were assessed as high or very high risk of harm and 86% were serving sentences of 10 or more years.
The prison itself was littered with broken and dirty furniture, equipment and infrastructure, with even the ceilings falling apart. While doubts were raised over the capital needed to fix these, prison leaders now face pressure to fix the many concerns raised.
That would represent a significant change compared to the response to the last inspection, when 16 concerns were raised. Of those, just four had been addressed since then.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said:
"The new government inherited a prison system in crisis and reports like these demonstrate the need for robust action to get the situation back under control.
"We have zero tolerance towards violence and drugs and our security measures, such as X-ray body scanners and anti-drone no-fly zones, detect and stop drugs from entering our prisons."
If you’re the sort of person who watches Budgets announcements, or at least pays attention to their MP talking it up, you’ll be used to politicians celebrating ‘bringing down the price of pint’. We saw it again last week with 1p knocked off beer duty and suggestions it was helping out the Great British pub (an industry genuinely in need of support) and giving back to the people.
Now, you can argue about the extent to which that reduction is ever seen by drinkers (and how much they’d have to spend to really notice the difference) but Lancaster and Wyre MP Cat Smith has gone against the grain to argue against the reduction for a different reason - public health.
Pointing to her constituency having the highest proportion of alcohol-related deaths and a sharp rise in such cases nationwide, Smith argued that politicians should instead be making alcohol less cost-friendly.
Addressing the House of Commons, she said:
The theme of today’s debate is the effect of the budget on working people. In the UK, it is estimated that 17 million working days are lost each year due to alcohol-related sickness. It is not just days lost; it is also decreased productivity, because alcohol abuse can lead to employees arriving late for work and being absent more often. Some workplace cultures encourage drinking—I think on that point, colleagues, we have to take a look at our own workplace. As we sit here, imagine for a moment that every seat in the Chamber was full but that, instead of seeing our colleagues, we could see the faces of those lost to alcohol harm. That is the reality: every week, the equivalent of this entire Chamber dies because of alcohol.
Just before the election was called, I was informed that as a district, Lancaster has the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths in England. That led me to look more into the issue in the hope of finding solutions to it. I discovered that since 2010, deaths from alcohol across the UK have risen by 42%. One of the main reasons is that alcohol has become much more affordable, due to successive Governments cutting alcohol duty rates—short-sighted and naive decision making that is out of step with the evidence that has come from experts for years. The knock-on effect on our public finances and wider economy is clear. The Institute of Alcohol Studies recently found that alcohol harm costs our society more than £27 billion a year.
Smith continued to explain the World Health Organisation recommends tackling affordability as the best way to reduce alcohol related harm, while also noting that current duty levels cover less than half of “the cost of the harm to society”. She continued:
“My plea to those on the Government Front Bench is that they stop placating the multi-billion-pound alcohol industry under the guise of helping pubs. Almost every time duty rates have been cut, Chancellors have proclaimed it as a victory for pubs—but that simply is not true. It helps supermarkets far more, allowing them to maintain much cheaper prices on alcohol. The only time in recent decades that that gap did not grow was under the last Labour Government, which introduced a duty escalator, increasing duty above inflation each year. During that period, the death rate from alcohol steadily fell.
Although I welcome the vast majority of the content of this Budget, I implore those on the Government Front Bench to look again at the cost of alcohol to our society and at how we address deaths from alcohol.”
Staying in Westminster, it seems only a few days since I discussed Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle becoming angry of policies being leaked to the media before being presented to the House of Commons as would be expected.
Well, we’re already back here again with the Chorley MP again admonishing the government in a conversation which occurred on an all too frequent basis during the Conservative administrations as well.
This time, it was education secretary Bridget Phillipson who faced Sir Lindsay’s wrath as news of an increase in tuition fees was reached journalists before fellow MPs. On top of his usual admonishment, the speaker has demanded answers on who was responsible for the leak. He said:
“The secretary of state is here to make this statement so honourable members will have the opportunity to question her. If the premature media reporting is due to an unauthorised leak, then it is a great discourtesy to this House.
“I hope the secretary of state will be able to identify the guilty party, take appropriate actions and brief me accordingly. So I now hope the secretary of state is going to announce the leak inquiry and we will get all the details of how this could have got out.”
Residents in the village of Belmont, near Chorley and Blackburn, were put at risk by a company’s failure to complete safety works at a reservoir.
That was the verdict of the Environment Agency (EA) as it prosecuted Midlands-based Blue Lagoon Heritage Group for failing to comply with an enforcement notice. The firm had been ordered to complete essential maintenance and construction works in May 2021 but five months later had failed to do so.
As a result, weekly safety checks were started by the EA and in the following summer it intervened in order to “protect public safety”, commissioning contractors to inspect and free the outlet valve.
This allowed levels at Ward’s reservoir to be managed and maintained at 5.25 metres below the maximum top water level, significantly reducing its risk of failure. In the continued absence of adequate management by the company the Environment Agency has since been conducting site visits and engineer safety checks.
Karl Hunter, Enforcement Advisor for the Environment Agency’s National Reservoir Safety Team, said:
“The director and owners of Blue Lagoon Heritage Limited failed to respond to advice and enforcement notices to improve the unacceptable and unsafe condition. This failure to comply came despite repeated site inspections and warnings from Environment Agency officers and independent expert engineers.
“This caused unacceptable risks to local residents and businesses in the village of Belmont and surrounding areas downstream of the reservoir. The owners of all Large Raised Reservoirs are regulated under the Reservoirs Act 1975 by the Environment Agency.
“The Act requires owners to maintain their reservoirs in full compliance with safety recommendations, set periodically by independent reservoir engineers. Blue Lagoon Heritage Limited took ownership of Ward’s Reservoir in 2019 and has consistently failed in its legal duty.
“We will continue to work to tackle inadequate maintenance of reservoirs which puts lives at risk. We are committed to ensuring that reservoir safety standards are adhered to.”
The company was ordered to pay fines and costs of £5,445.
🚨 Blackpool South MP Chris Webb was mugged while walking back to his London flat (Blackpool Lead).
👩⚕️ A nurse from Lancaster has been awarded a prestigious honour for her dedication to the job (Lancaster Guardian).
🛣️ Councillors in Hyndburn want to see the M65’s safety reviewed after a series of serious crashes (BBC).
🤮 More complaints of 'vomiting and urinating in the street' and 'used condoms' left lying around on pavements in a picturesque village have been made (Lancashire Telegraph).
💷 Blackburn with Darwen Council has written off more than £2.5 million of bad debts as irrecoverable (Lancashire Telegraph).
🔥 A fire at a historic Preston orphanage is being investigated as an arson attack (Blog Preston).
🚫 Campervans and motorhomes could be banned from parking overnight in all Lancaster City Council car parks (Beyond Radio).
Thank you for reading the 67th edition of The Lancashire Lead. If you enjoyed it, please consider supporting my work by taking out a paid subscription and sharing the title so others can find it too. I’ll be back with a new edition on Sunday.
