The facility next to HMP Full Sutton spent years going through the planning process as residents living nearby raised objections
A new prison which locals tried to stop being built near an East Riding village has been named.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) confirmed it will be called HMP Millsike, which was chosen following a local consultation on the name of the facility, which is being built next to the maximum security HMP Full Sutton, near Pockington. Prison Minister Damian Hinds said naming the prison brought it one step closer to it being able to protect the public and cut crime.
But the naming also comes after a years-long planning battle which saw hundreds of locals object to the Category C men’s prison which will house 1,440 inmates. Its construction has also attracted protests, with two people charged in early February in connection with an attempt to block the entrance to the site.
The group which organised the blockade said it was demonstrating in solidarity with rising numbers of protesters being jailed, raising a banner saying: “build communities, not prisons”. Outline or initial plans for the prison were passed by East Riding councillors in 2019 and the reserve matters, details including for building features and landscaping, were approved in November 2021.
Full Sutton locals, parish and East Riding councillors said at the time they feared the Moor Lane prison would be overbearing without extensive landscaping from trees and a soil bund. Concerns were also raised for wildlife, local drainage systems, along with claims it would see village roads congested as hundreds of staff and visitors drive to and from the site.
One villager living close to the existing HMP Full Sutton said he feared for his and his family’s mental health if the plans got the go ahead. Wolds Weighton’s Cllr Leo Hammond said in 2021 that villagers had come to accept the prison would be built but they were fighting to limit its impact.
The MoJ agreed to plant 1,770 trees, 70 per cent of which would be evergreen, to help screen the prison from view. The Ministry also offered to build a 3.5m-high soil bund topped with a 2m acoustic fence but said a 10m-tall earthworks locals requested was unfeasible.
