Jail fireworks 'something we've come to expect'

Neighbours describe loud celebrations at all hours

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

INMATES at troubled Forest Bank jail in Salford are able to celebrate birthdays thanks to huge industrial fireworks being set off by loved ones just over the prison walls.

The pyrotechnics are now happening at all times of the day and night, according to residents who have lived at the site since before the jail was opened in 2000.

Managers at the privately-operated category B prison said they were open to discussing concerns with neighbours and that 'we seek to minimize impact on those who live nearby.

Angela Dunbar, 66, lives in a semi on Billington Road - one of six homes on the cul-de-sac which is separated from the prison by a small parcel of woodland - and spoke to the M.E.N about what it's like to neighbour a jail.

She told the Manchester Evening News: "To be honest we all thought it was going to be a nightmare [before it was built]. We were frightened of having a prison built near us.

We were expecting escaped convicts coming through the house! She and her husband Chic, 60, who are both foster carers, have become used to the noise of drones flying overhead - they have been used to drop drugs into the prison and the sight of prison visitors driving up their road, having taken a wrong turn.

The couple recall the 'spiel' they were given before the prison was built on the site of the former Agecroft power station from 1998.

They promised they would landscape the bottom of the road and keep the area tidy and that there would be public footpaths. None of that has happened," said Chic, who used to own his own company.