Locals living next to £286m prison fume as rowdy inmates 'swear and play explicit music'

Residents in Glen Parva, Leicestershire have said their lives have been made a living hell by Britain's newest prison. The category C retainment centre opened in May 2023, replacing Glen Parva Youth Offenders institute and houses 1,700 prisoners who are near the end of their sentences.

HMP Fosse Way has a 5-aside football pitch, games consoles and computers, a studio to learn music, and a £100,000 digger simulator all of which is to help prisoners prepare for the world of work when they leave prison.

However, those living in the prison's shadows say that the noise from prisoners and the prison itself plague them day and night. Managing director Warren Sim, 56, says he lives just hundreds of metres from the nearest prison block. He said: "Where our garden ends there's a trainline and the other side of that is the prison ground."

The dad of four says that prisoners are "shouting out the window, effing and blinding at each other, explicit rap music is so loud you can hear it in our garden."

He adds that the noise isn't just the prisoners but from the prison itself. He added: "Alarms are going off all the time, when alarms go off, they should be dealt with quickly but sometimes you hear them going off for 30 minutes."

Jackyn Tierney, 47 won't let her kids play outside due to the amount of noise coming from the prison in case they hear any of the language coming from the prisoners or music. She also added that the air conditioning reminds her of planes taking off. She said: "I used to live next to an airport and the fans [at the prison] sound exactly like a plane taking off."

Chris Husler, 46, is worried about the impact the prison is having on his home, adding that "its not just the noise it's the privacy as well."

He says that in some of the homes prisoners can see in and vice versa, and "from my son's bedroom window you can literally see prisoners on the landing".

Chris also has concerns over the light pollution being emitted from the prison. He said that "the lighting means that it is never dark. Birds are chirping all night as they think it is dawn."

A lot of residents are worried about the safety of their homes, as one resident who wished to remain anonymous said "I have always worried about prisoners absconding and breaking into homes."

Between 2023 and 2024, nearly 60 prisoners absconded and last year Ashley Ferrie was the first person to die in HMP Fosse Way

Senco says it has implemented a "number of measures" to tackle the issues. A spokesperson for Senco said: "We remain committed to working with the local community to find suitable resolutions where possible."

A spokesperson for Blaby District Council said: "We have been working closely with prison operators Serco to advise them on ways they can manage noise issues to reduce any impact on local residents."

The spokesperson added that people still having issues with noise should contact the council's environmental health department, insisting that "both ourselves and Serco are keen to ensure any disturbance from the site is kept to a minimum."