The first MoJ (Ministry of Justice) approved prison posts have rolled off the production line at Zaun, pictured. They have been delivered from the West Midlands factory to a new £250m ‘super prison’ at Wrexham.
Zaun Group companies were appointed to the 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 which has a small remand function that will open next year. The site will hold 2106 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 Lend Lease.
At Wrexham, the Government will adopt a new approach of public, voluntary and private sector collaboration to run the prison. Her Majesty’s Prison Service will take overall ownership and outsource 34pc of service provision – including an industrial workshop.
The MoJ concluded its selection process before Christmas for companies to be appointed to its framework contract for the supply of fencing materials, including financial audits and sample installations for inspection and testing by MoJ staff.
Zaun was appointed to the framework as an approved supplier of permanent and temporary galvanised steel fence posts and welded steel fence mesh, while Binns was certified as an approved installer. The approvals apply to MoJ prison fencing around 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 installation of fencing systems, gives us the confidence we can win more work like Wrexham. Indeed, we hope Wrexham may prove the blueprint for the Government’s published future new build prison programme.’
In November 2015, the then Chancellor George Osborne and then Justice Secretary Michael Gove unveiled prison reform including plans to build nine new prisons, with five of them due to open before May 2020.
