The new £250m super-prison at Wrexham indicates the work two newly-allied high-security fencing experts will be targeting today.
Binns Fencing and Zaun Limited, which today became sister companies in the Zaun group, are working together on the new Category C closed prison with a small remand function that will open in 2017 and hold 2,106 adult male offenders. For “those who cannot be trusted in open conditions but who do not have the resources and the will to make a determined escape attempt”.
Binns won the order to supply and install almost 2km of prison-standard secure perimeter fencing on the former Firestone site on Wrexham Industrial Estate.
Binns has just finished installing the first phase of the 5.2m high perimeter made up of 750 Zaun’s HiSec security fencing panels with the popular 358 welded mesh configuration.
Construction work is set to be stepped up since the Ministry of Justice officially signed the £156.9 million contract with the main contractor Lend Lease, following months of preparatory work that has included levelling the site, erecting the secure perimeter fence and digging foundations for the first house block.
Binns MD Adam Binns said: ‘Wrexham is typical of the trend among our clients wanting us to take full responsibility for fencing, from design, through manufacture and supply to installation. Now, as part of the Zaun group, we can target this type of work confident in the knowledge we have control right through the project.’
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.
Two months ago, Prisons Minister Andrew Selous announced the Government would adopt a new public, voluntary and private sector collaboration to run the prison. As a result, her Majesty’s Prison Service will take overall ownership and outsource 34% of service provision – including a large industrial workshop complex.
