Hundreds of people have crowded the Westbury Town Hall to condemn the state government's proposal to build a $270 million maximum security prison just north of the town.
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Westbury residents came together in what was a spirited - and, at times, heated - rally on Saturday morning.
Dark clouds loomed in the sky over the Meander Valley, threatening to put a dampener on the event as it kicked off on the Village Green.
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Despite a retreat to the shelter of the Town Hall's supper room, the community's hostility towards the government MPs in attendance provided for plenty of thunder and lightning.
With a crowd of about 300 people packed into the hall, there was standing room only as Lyons Liberal MHAs Mark Shelton and John Tucker addressed the rally.
There were jeers and boos from the crowd when the pair strode up to the front of the room.
Mr Shelton, formerly the mayor of Meander Valley, said he and Mr Tucker were there to listen to what people in the community had to say about the proposal for the Northern Regional Prison.
"I do understand some of the feelings that are in the hall," he said. "From my point-of-view, and from John's point-of-view, we're here to listen, to find out the feelings of the community."
Mr Tucker then echoed his colleague's comments, and, to the open derision of the audience, said, "We as the Liberal Party are listening".
Westbury resident Liza de Lautour reprimanded Mr Shelton for the lack of consultation with the community before the Valley Central Industrial Precinct was announced as the preferred site for the prison.
"We were not told that this was going to happen," she said.
Solicitor and Westbury local Linda Poulton told those gathered in the Town Hall that the community would need to start fundraising "immediately" in order to pay for the consultants it would need to engage to help it make the case against the government's proposal.
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"We need the government to know that we have the wherewithal to fight this until the end," she said.
The government is expected to put a planning item before the Meander Valley Council by February 2020.
Lyons Labor MHA Jen Butler came out strongly in opposition to the proposal to build the prison on the industrial estate, declaring that her party did not want it on that particular site.
"We don't think that this prison has a community consensus," she said.
Ms Butler was met with loud cheers when she said Labor did not think Westbury was "the right place for a Northern prison".
She implored those opposed to the idea of the prison going up outside the town to "support each other ... [and] be respectful".
Three Meander Valley councillors were present at the rally: John Temple, Rodney Synfield and Frank Nott. Each of them spoke to their role in the planning process.