Burned block at Guys Marsh prison to be demolished
Prisoners set fire to the block in 2017.
GUY’S Marsh prison has been told it can go ahead with the demolition of a fire damaged Wessex cell block and other buildings – in preparation for redeveloping the site.
Pictures show for the first time how the block has remained un-touched since 2017 and is now in a dangerous condition.
Demolition work is expected to start in the first week of December, continuing until the end of March.
The Ministry of Justice say the cleared land will then be converted for use as a sports pitch as part of the prison’s expansion plans.
The block is one of five in the middle of the site and was damaged when prisoners set fire to it in early 2017. Shortly afterwards it was declared structural unsafe and secured from the rest of the site with corrugated sheet fencing.
A structural engineer’s report says the block has remained untouched since the fire: “This has remained the status-quo since 2017 and no works have been undertaken to shore or make safe the damaged sections of the building. In the interim the building has suffered notably from water ingress and degradation resulting in further instability.”
Part of that damage is thought to have been caused by an overflowing water tank in the roof which appears not to have been turned off.
Similar to the other prison blocks Wessex has three wings extending from a central area. Only one of the wings was left relatively undamaged by the fire – saved by the fire brigade cutting a fire break through the roof. Each of the wings had a dozen cells on each floor.
The approval for demolition includes also removing a redundant sports pavilion, workshop and IT portacabins.
In addition to the new sports pitch the prison plans to build two new two storey cell blocks, one with 120 cells, the other with 60, a new workshop and office accommodation in addition to an extension to the existing cardiovascular building and a control and restraint block.
Photographs with the planning documents submitted to Dorset Council show the extent of the damage caused by the fire with personal possessions still littering the site.
A structural engineer’s report says the building is unsafe and will need a specialist demolition team to safely bring it down. Sections of the site may contain asbestos which will need to be carefully removed.