The first MoJ approved prison posts have rolled off the production line at Zaun and been delivered to the new £250m super-prison at Wrexham.
Zaun Group companies were appointed to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) approved supplier and installer list of fencing materials at the end of 2015.
Binns Fencing and Zaun Limited, who became sister companies earlier in 2015, are working together on the Category C closed prison with a small remand function that will open next year and hold 2,106 adult male offenders.
Binns won the contract to supply and install large stretches of prison-standard secure perimeter fencing on the former Firestone site on Wrexham Industrial Estate, working alongside main contractor Lendlease.
The £212m construction will provide good quality prison accommodation that reduces the cost per prisoner place. Once operational, it will further boost the regional economy by around £23 million a year and create up to 1,000 jobs.
At Wrexham, the Government will adopt a new public, voluntary and private sector collaboration to run the prison. Her Majesty’s Prison Service will take overall ownership and outsource 34% of service provision – including a large industrial workshop complex.
The MoJ concluded its selection process before Christmas for companies to be appointed to its framework contract to supply fencing materials, including financial audits and sample installations for inspection and testing by MoJ personnel.
Zaun was appointed to the framework as an approved supplier of permanent and temporary galvanised steel fence posts and welded steel fence mesh. At the same time, Binns was certified as an approved installer.
The approvals apply to MoJ prison fencing throughout the UK, including Northern Ireland.
Zaun co-founder and director Alastair Henman said: ‘It’s a really proud moment seeing the first steel prison fence posts off our production lines. And the control we can exercise from design, through manufacture and supply to the installation of fencing systems, gives us the confidence to win more work like Wrexham.
‘Indeed, we hope Wrexham may prove the blueprint for the Government’s published future new-build prison programme.’
On 9 November 2015, then Chancellor George Osborne and then Justice Secretary Michael Gove unveiled a major new prison reform programme, including building nine new prisons. Five of them were due to open before May 2020.
