Give us a date for public meeting - Swinson

10.24.39am GMT Fri 27th Mar 2009

Jo has criticised the Scottish Prison Service for their hesitance to meet with Bishopbriggs residents and urged them to hold a public meeting as soon as possible.

The SPS told Jo that to avoid accusations of party political bias, they will not arrange a public meeting with any particular elected representative, but instead would organise a public meeting in due course. A date has not yet been set for the meeting, however Jo urged Chief Executive Mike Ewart not to delay, as residents fear the longer the working title 'HMP Bishopbriggs' stays, the more likely it is to stick.

Commenting, Jo said:

"Yesterday I finally managed to speak to the relevant person at SPS about my letter asking for a meeting in Bishopbriggs. It took more than two weeks and ten unreturned telephone messages for this conversation to happen, which doesn't say much for the willingness of SPS to engage with local people and their elected representatives on the issue of the prison name! While SPS didn't seem to recognise the urgency of the issue for people in Bishopbriggs, I made it very clear that the meeting must be as soon as possible. This fiasco has gone on long enough and the people of Bishopbriggs want to see it resolved swiftly."

Jo has gathered almost 3000 signatures from local people in a petition against the working title.