Westbury residents concerned about a Northern Regional Prison being built in their backyard will formalise a group to take the fight to the state government.
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At 11.30am on Saturday, October 26, a community rally will be held on the Village Green at Westbury, followed by a meeting at the town hall where a discussion is set to be had about formally incorporating a group in opposition to the prison.
Longtime Westbury resident Heather Donaldson said the incorporation documents had been drawn up and that the group would be "in this for the long-haul".
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"It is a little community against everybody else," she said. "It is David and Goliath - it's a real battle."
"We are going to stop this prison [because] this town is too precious to us.
"We are not prepared to risk the image that Westbury has, of this beautiful, peaceful little historic town."
Ms Donaldson said people of all political persuasions were aligning themselves with the new group, including several Liberal voters.
She said some had resolved never to support the Liberal Party again if the prison went up outside Westbury.
Last month, state Corrections Minister Elise Archer announced that the government had identified the Valley Central Industrial Precinct, just north of Westbury, as the preferred site for the $270 million Northern Regional Prison.
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In an opinion piece in The Examiner on October 16, Ms Archer wrote that community safety was the government's "number one priority" when it came to the new prison.
"Research in other jurisdictions has shown that following the establishment of a prison facility, there has not been a negative impact on the image of the region and surrounds," she wrote.