Jail plans urged over site fears

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The Ministry of Justice has been urged to outline plans for a new jail in north Wales after it emerged no offer has been made to buy an earmarked site.

Plans for a jail on the Dynamex Friction site on the outskirts of Caernarfon were unveiled in February.

But site owner Bluefield Land Caernarfon Ltd said it had not received an offer and would go ahead with its own plans if no progress was made.

The Ministry of Justice said it is completing its "governance process".

It is estimated that a new prison on the site of the former brake factory - which was originally called called Ferodo - will create 1,000 permanent jobs and be worth £17m a year to the local economy.

The site's owners have announced their own proposals for a housing and leisure development on the site, and say they will proceed with that scheme if no offer to buy the site from the Ministry of Justice is forthcoming.

Caernarfon MP Hywel Williams has called for more details of the plans. said he was still confident the prison scheme would go ahead but called on the ministry to make an announcement as soon as possible.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "We are completing our governance process and will respond to the site owners in due course."