Prison plans delayed as designers wrangle dodgy site

Map of the Birralee area showing the second proposed Northern Regional Prison site, adjoining property boundaries and overlays of the areas impacted by environmental concerns.

© Meander Valley Gazette

Map of the Birralee area showing the second proposed Northern Regional Prison site, adjoining property boundaries and overlays of the areas impacted by environmental concerns.

© Meander Valley Gazette

By Sharon Webb

MINISTER FOR Corrections Elise Archer’s plans for a northern prison on the second site are looking precarious as experts grapple with rocky terrain and lack of allowance for a fire zone, sewerage and electricity.

Senior public servants from Corrections and DPIPWE have told neighbouring landowners of the Birralee Road site they won’t finish their ‘due diligence’ research on the site before the end of December, blowing out Ms Archer’s timetable to have the planning application heard by Meander Valley Council before Christmas.

Justice Department director of strategic infrastructure projects Brad Wheeler told representatives of 11 Birralee families who formed Concerned Residents Opposed to the Westbury Prison Site (CROWPS) the site ‘is a complex piece of work and we are finding more complexity as we work through it’

CROWPS spokesperson Aaron Reader said, ‘Many of the complexities stem from the fact that it is hilly and solid rock in places,despite Minister Archer claiming that one of the primary factors in choosing the first site was because it was “nice and flat”.

‘Was more proof needed that the announcement of the proposed new Northern Regional Prison site was hasty, botched and made without due process?

‘They are still nowhere near having an idea of how they’re going to build a prison there. Their initial research has just turned up more questions.

A site map given to CROWPS in June shows the nature of the unexpected problems encountered by Corrections.

It indicates a fire zone around the prison bleeding substantially into properties owned by the neighbouring Archer family and tree plantation company Forico.

‘Corrections now realises they’re not going to get an agreement with those landowners,’ Mr Reader said. ‘Will the government forcefully acquire the land? People wouldn’t be happy about that.’

The fire zone may be less of an issue than under previous planning rules as formulators of Tasmania’s incoming planning scheme quietly weakened fire zone requirements for ‘vulnerable uses’ such as prisons and hospitals.

Previous tough fire zone requirements were the reason Teen Challenge’s use of the Meander Primary School site for drug rehabilitation was thrown out by the Supreme Court.

But sewage disposal is another hurdle prison planners will need to leap with the Birralee prison site, because sewage must travel 4–5kms from the site to the nearest treatment plant, ironically near the first choice of prison site at Glen Avon Farm.

‘They’ll need to pump it over land owned by others,’ Mr Reader said.

‘At our meeting the public servants said they’ll try to get all the services into the road easement but there’s just no way. There’s no space.

‘They’ll need to take it over neighbouring properties, across the Meander River and then across two more properties, even though Mr Wheeler stated that all services will be placed within the road reserve and not encroach onto neighbours’ property.’

Access to electricity is also a barrier for the prison planners – mainly because they seem not to know there is none. The nearest is a couple of kilometres away.

‘The Corrections Minister stated, in her media conference with the Premier on 18 June, that the proposed new prison site “has electricity running past”,’ Mr Reader said.

‘This is completely incorrect as there is no power running past this site.’

By August 19 Mr Wheeler was still adamant that there was power going past this proposed new site.

‘How, after seven months, are they still unaware that there is no power going past this site is shocking. The community trusts this team to competently undertake due diligence.

‘And despite previous assurances to us from the premier and Corrections, Mr Wheeler could not guarantee that the prison would not be seen from the road,’ Mr Reader said.

Birralee residents are embittered by recent revelations via Right To Know documents that the bush block selected by the government for the prison site was to have been allocated to the Tasmanian Land Conservancy.

Fred Baker, who has a view of the first prison site from his living room, believes he will still have a view of the prison if it is built on the second site. ‘We want Westbury free of all this,’ he said.