As the Home Office looks to keep Lancaster Castle a prison for the next ten years some feel a real tourist opportunity is going begging... Chris Webber reports

THE Home Office want to extend the lease on Lancaster Castle to keep it as a prison for another 10 years.

A spokesman from the Home Office's prison service confirmed that negotiations between themselves and the Duchy of Lancaster - as well as Lancaster City Council - commenced this week.

If they are successful - and they always have been in the past - the category C prison will remain operational from 2001 until 2010.

The news comes in the same week that Virgin Trains announced that they want to rename Lancaster Station "Lancaster - for Lancaster Castle" in a bid to boost tourism.

The famous landmark is considered by some as potentially one of the biggest tourist attractions in the North West but, historically, it has always been a place from which the authorities administer the law.

We decided to go onto the streets to find out what the people of Lancaster thought about our castle?

Irish woman Sovena Kutschmarski, who has lived on Albion Street in the city for two years, said she was amazed when she discovered the castle was a prison. "I couldn't believe it when I found out," she said, "I thought it was basically a tourist attraction and that's what it should be."

Joanne Fleetwood, 17, from Morecambe agreed with her, adding: "The money that the extra tourists would bring in would help the whole area. It would also be nice for local people to have a look around. It's not nice to have a high security prison right in the centre of town."

Friends Natalie Kutschmarski, 16, a Citizen paper girl, and Sophie Stevenet, 21, had differing opinions. Natalie, on the left of the picture, thought the prison should be relocated elsewhere. But Sophie of Ridge Street argued: "It's better to have a working building than a museum piece in the city. That's been a prison for a long time. It's still a useful building that serves society."

A spokesman for the prison service commented: "Lancaster Castle is a key operational prison in the North West. It has been a prison for many, many years and we have no plans to cease its operation. We are in negotiations and we await the final decision."

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