The UK’s Biggest Prison Is Being Built Near Jamie Oliver’s £6 Million House

Britain’s largest prison could be built just four miles from Jamie Oliver’s £6 million rural dwelling in England’s most photographed village.

The TV chef and his family face having their lives turned upside down by the monumental building on the doorstep of his mansion, which is located close to the idyllic village of Finchingfield.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) wants to build two mega prisons that can hold 3,430 male prisoners on the site of a former RAF airbase at Wethersfield, in Essex.

Residents in Finchingfield have lashed out at the plans as being almost the worst site you could find a prison.

If they come to fruition, the plans would see Category B and Category C prisons built on the 800-acre site near a region famous for its picture-perfect views.

The MoJ has launched a consultation on the plans but has been met with rigid opposition from people living in the village and the nearby village of Wethersfield.

Finchingfield brings in tourists from afar who come to enjoy the small settlements laid back and historic structures, which also served as the location for BBC’s Lovejoy series.

Houses in the village market for an average price of £425,000, making it one of the most costly in the whole country, with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver moving into a historic townhouse in the area with his wife Jools and their five children five years ago.

He frequently films himself preparing dishes for his TV performances in the garden of the Grade One listed property and has often posted images with his wife at their home.

Since then, he’s had to contend with a scheme to increase the number of beavers in the area in a bid to relieve flooding and plans to develop a new housing estate that other residents feared would blight their ‘chocolate box’ village.

Jamie Oliver is said to have been made aware of the prison plans but has dodged making any public statement, despite Jools seemingly being friends with some of the protesters.

Some residents have speculated that he might not want to be seen as a NIMBY (not in my backyard) protester, especially in the light of his work employing ex-prisoners at his former Fifteen restaurants in London and Cornwall.

The airfield at Wethersfield was an RAF base for Spitfires during World War II before becoming an American bomber base towards the end of the conflict.

The prison, if built will be four miles away from where Jamie Oliver and his family live, not exactly in their backyard then, and I’m sure prisoners are equally as anxious – they don’t want to be subjected to his food either.

And the fact that these residents think that prisons should be built near poor people and poor areas makes me feel less sorry for these millionaires.

All prisons, however, should be built near decent traffic connections so that their loved ones can go and visit because if you don’t drive Wethersfield isn’t an easy location to get to.

I’m sure it’s not ideal for the villagers, but the need for new prisons is urgent, and can be built in pretty and exclusive places as well as ugly or run down ones, and just because these people are moneyed, it doesn’t give them the right to veto these things and make them build it somewhere else that isn’t close to them, and it’s not like the convicts are going to be wandering around the village or in the fields.