Now we're smokin'...
10:07am Wednesday 14th May 2008
A LANCASTER firm has helped to open the first food smokery to be installed at a Government run prison.
Port of Lancaster Smoke House, based at Glasson Dock, is behind the venture which officially opened this week at HMP Haverigg, near Millom.
Its proprieters Michael and John Price were among guests invited inside the jail to see a plaque unveiled by Steve Broomhead, chief executive of North West Development Agency, which gave financial backing to the scheme.
Prison governor Clive Chatterton had the idea for the smokery after a chance remark at a farmers' market about there not being many food smoke houses in the Lake District.
He approached Port of Lancaster Smoke House to see if they could give advice - and they enthusiastically became involved.
Haverigg prison has expanded with a new block for 64 prisoners, bringing the capacity for the C category jail up to 650.
The smoke house is seen as a significant development for the prison and the community of Haverigg.
"It enables prisoners to learn new skills and increases the opportunity for them to find work in the growing leisure and food processing industries. If prisoners can get a job on release from prison they are far less likely to re-offend," says Mr Chatterton.
Mr Broomhead has praised Michael and John Price - whose business was the overall winner of the hotly contested 007 North WestFine Food Producer of the Year Awards - for genuine social conscience'.
Established more than 30 years ago, the company has recently become so successful that it has run out of space at its home base. The prison smokery, already employing four people, gives them increased production capacity.