This prison has *radon*. It shouldn’t be reopened until proper measures have been put in place to clear it, and tbh even then I’m iffy about it. My aunt and uncle’s house had radon, which wasn’t found out until both of them died from cancer. I wouldn’t wish the effects of all that on anybody.
> The 25-year lease, which was struck when the King was Prince of Wales and head of the Duchy, was renewed by the government in March 2022 and commenced in December 2023. The Duchy has increased the cost of the lease by more than double the amount paid in the 1980s, even after taking into account rises for inflation and the terms dictate that the taxpayer would still be required to pay at least £13.5 million more, even if the Ministry of Justice were to end the contract now.
> A Tory source familiar with the details of the lease renewal said that the MoJ felt it had no alternative but to sign or lose vital prison spaces.
I don’t see the benefit of renewing a lease knowing that you can’t use it for “vital prison spaces” since apparently the conditions are so bad.
> The National Audit Office has raised concerns about the deal, describing it as “poor value for money”, adding that the prison “had been scheduled to close for at least a decade prior, so HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) had not invested in capital maintenance. Despite this, HMPPS recently extended the lease for another 25 years.”
> The Duchy says both sides took expert advice when the deal was made.
Should probably find a new expert
> HMP Dartmoor, which sits on the outskirts of the village of Princetown, in the middle of the Dartmoor national park, was built by the Admiralty with taxpayers’ money in the 19th century to hold French prisoners in the Napoleonic wars, before it was given to the Duchy.
> Radon levels are naturally higher in parts of the country rich in granite, such as Dartmoor in Devon and across areas of Cornwall. Leaked correspondence between the Health Protection Agency and HMP Dartmoor shows that the prison first became aware that levels of radon gas exceeding safe levels in as early as 2007. In 2019 the government announced the prison would close, but in December 2021 it changed its mind again and confirmed that, following negotiations with the Duchy, the prison would remain open.
Not sure what negotiations happened between them but like it’s obvious it wasn’t about who and how they’re going to make the prisons habitable.
> In December 2020 more gas had been detected, and recently published documents show that it took two years for mitigations to be put in place to reduce radon levels. Last July levels peaked again and prisoners were moved out.
> According to the Duchy’s 2024 annual accounts, its commercial property and development committee visited Dartmoor prison within the past year, though the purpose was not disclosed. Annual reports for previous years make little mention of the prison other than to note the lease was being reviewed. It neither mentions the radon leaks nor the dilapidated state of the prison.
> However, in 2022, the annual report notes that the Duchy was spending £700,000 on a project to restore peatland on land, including the former prison farm.
Not sure how restoring land around the prison is going to improve the issues inside the prisons. Very curious what was “negotiated” between the MoD and the Duchy.
> Attempts to improve ventilation in the prison, to reduce gas exposure among staff and inmates, ceased in September after the government’s contractor, ISG Construction, collapsed. No work has taken place since then.
> The MoJ has spent £867,000 on mitigations to reduce radon levels to legally safe levels, according to a freedom of information request by Channel 4’s investigations unit. However, sources have suggested that earlier measures mean the true cost is substantially higher.
> Labour’s Baroness Hodge of Barking, who was formerly chair of the Commons public accounts committee and has in the past called for a full Treasury investigation into the Duchy’s business deals, said that profiting from the prison while it remained closed had “the makings of nothing short of a scandal”.
Sure. I agree, but who are the idiots who renewed a lease for what is apparently a 300 year old building which has all sorts of issues.
The issues with the duchies will always remain, either they are considered private estates which seems to be the last view of parliament in 2011 or whatever or they’re not and would have to somehow be integrated into crown land (which as I’ve said before imo I don’t think is something that can happen in a peaceful way and would require cooperation with the royals but obviously I am not a constitutional expert or a lawyer so my opinion is just that an opinion).
But if they’re considered private estates and vehicles for the royals to make money then while it looks bad for them to charge public services millions of dollars as individuals the government would still have to pay somebody a lease for building space or build prisons on crown lands where they own the building outright.
> Asked whether the Duchy would consider negotiating the terms of the lease or reinvesting profit from the lease into public initiatives, a spokesman said: “Dartmoor Prison has been let to the Ministry of Justice since 1850. The Ministry of Justice and the Duchy of Cornwall are in regular communication in connection with the lease.”
> An MoJ source did not dispute it was possible that Dartmoor may never reopen. While the department is exploring whether it is possible to carry out further mitigations, the source acknowledged that the costs of these works were not yet clear, nor whether it was possible to reduce the radon to safe levels.
> The source said: “The last government did not build enough new prison places and they underfunded maintenance for years. They lost almost as many cells as they built — adding just 500 places in 14 years.”
> A Prison Service representative said: “After close monitoring of the situation at HMP Dartmoor, we took the decision to temporarily close the site. We continue to take advice from specialists to explore how it can be reopened as quickly as possible.”
Best case scenario both the duchy and MoJ end the lease without any further payments. But I imagine the issues of the duchies won’t be going away anytime soon and will be a point of contention between the government, the palace and the press. And I’m curious if it’ll end up on the floor for a parliamentary debate and what the outcome will be.
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I would like 1.5 million pounds of yearly passive income
The archive version: https://archive.ph/kjOmd
This prison has *radon*. It shouldn’t be reopened until proper measures have been put in place to clear it, and tbh even then I’m iffy about it. My aunt and uncle’s house had radon, which wasn’t found out until both of them died from cancer. I wouldn’t wish the effects of all that on anybody.
> The 25-year lease, which was struck when the King was Prince of Wales and head of the Duchy, was renewed by the government in March 2022 and commenced in December 2023. The Duchy has increased the cost of the lease by more than double the amount paid in the 1980s, even after taking into account rises for inflation and the terms dictate that the taxpayer would still be required to pay at least £13.5 million more, even if the Ministry of Justice were to end the contract now.
> A Tory source familiar with the details of the lease renewal said that the MoJ felt it had no alternative but to sign or lose vital prison spaces.
I don’t see the benefit of renewing a lease knowing that you can’t use it for “vital prison spaces” since apparently the conditions are so bad.
> The National Audit Office has raised concerns about the deal, describing it as “poor value for money”, adding that the prison “had been scheduled to close for at least a decade prior, so HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) had not invested in capital maintenance. Despite this, HMPPS recently extended the lease for another 25 years.”
> The Duchy says both sides took expert advice when the deal was made.
Should probably find a new expert
> HMP Dartmoor, which sits on the outskirts of the village of Princetown, in the middle of the Dartmoor national park, was built by the Admiralty with taxpayers’ money in the 19th century to hold French prisoners in the Napoleonic wars, before it was given to the Duchy.
> Radon levels are naturally higher in parts of the country rich in granite, such as Dartmoor in Devon and across areas of Cornwall. Leaked correspondence between the Health Protection Agency and HMP Dartmoor shows that the prison first became aware that levels of radon gas exceeding safe levels in as early as 2007. In 2019 the government announced the prison would close, but in December 2021 it changed its mind again and confirmed that, following negotiations with the Duchy, the prison would remain open.
Not sure what negotiations happened between them but like it’s obvious it wasn’t about who and how they’re going to make the prisons habitable.
> In December 2020 more gas had been detected, and recently published documents show that it took two years for mitigations to be put in place to reduce radon levels. Last July levels peaked again and prisoners were moved out.
> According to the Duchy’s 2024 annual accounts, its commercial property and development committee visited Dartmoor prison within the past year, though the purpose was not disclosed. Annual reports for previous years make little mention of the prison other than to note the lease was being reviewed. It neither mentions the radon leaks nor the dilapidated state of the prison.
> However, in 2022, the annual report notes that the Duchy was spending £700,000 on a project to restore peatland on land, including the former prison farm.
Not sure how restoring land around the prison is going to improve the issues inside the prisons. Very curious what was “negotiated” between the MoD and the Duchy.
> Attempts to improve ventilation in the prison, to reduce gas exposure among staff and inmates, ceased in September after the government’s contractor, ISG Construction, collapsed. No work has taken place since then.
> The MoJ has spent £867,000 on mitigations to reduce radon levels to legally safe levels, according to a freedom of information request by Channel 4’s investigations unit. However, sources have suggested that earlier measures mean the true cost is substantially higher.
> Labour’s Baroness Hodge of Barking, who was formerly chair of the Commons public accounts committee and has in the past called for a full Treasury investigation into the Duchy’s business deals, said that profiting from the prison while it remained closed had “the makings of nothing short of a scandal”.
Sure. I agree, but who are the idiots who renewed a lease for what is apparently a 300 year old building which has all sorts of issues.
The issues with the duchies will always remain, either they are considered private estates which seems to be the last view of parliament in 2011 or whatever or they’re not and would have to somehow be integrated into crown land (which as I’ve said before imo I don’t think is something that can happen in a peaceful way and would require cooperation with the royals but obviously I am not a constitutional expert or a lawyer so my opinion is just that an opinion).
But if they’re considered private estates and vehicles for the royals to make money then while it looks bad for them to charge public services millions of dollars as individuals the government would still have to pay somebody a lease for building space or build prisons on crown lands where they own the building outright.
> Asked whether the Duchy would consider negotiating the terms of the lease or reinvesting profit from the lease into public initiatives, a spokesman said: “Dartmoor Prison has been let to the Ministry of Justice since 1850. The Ministry of Justice and the Duchy of Cornwall are in regular communication in connection with the lease.”
> An MoJ source did not dispute it was possible that Dartmoor may never reopen. While the department is exploring whether it is possible to carry out further mitigations, the source acknowledged that the costs of these works were not yet clear, nor whether it was possible to reduce the radon to safe levels.
> The source said: “The last government did not build enough new prison places and they underfunded maintenance for years. They lost almost as many cells as they built — adding just 500 places in 14 years.”
> A Prison Service representative said: “After close monitoring of the situation at HMP Dartmoor, we took the decision to temporarily close the site. We continue to take advice from specialists to explore how it can be reopened as quickly as possible.”
Best case scenario both the duchy and MoJ end the lease without any further payments. But I imagine the issues of the duchies won’t be going away anytime soon and will be a point of contention between the government, the palace and the press. And I’m curious if it’ll end up on the floor for a parliamentary debate and what the outcome will be.
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