Prison campaigners to fight to the end after fresh blow

A legal bid to overturn the government's decision to build a third prison in a Lancashire village has failed.

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Locals campaigning against the new jail in Ulnes Walton, near Leyland, have been refused leave to appeal against the controversial plans.

However, they have vowed to pursue the one route left open to them in their near four-year battle to block the 1,715-inmate facility, on a site close to the existing Garth and Wymott jails.

The Ulnes Walton Action Group (UWAG) had sought to launch a judicial review after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner chose, last December, to ignore the recommendation of an independent planning inspector by giving the green light to the category C prison.

It came after that inspector, Tom Gilbert-Wooldridge, said for a second time that the proposed jail should be refused permission - chiefly over safety concerns about the impact construction vehicles would have on the local road network during the five years it would take to build.