At the Meander Valley Council's meeting last Tuesday, councillor John Temple questioned, without notice, if the council had any doubt the majority of the town's residents were against the proposed prison.

As he said he had spoken to 400-500 people against the prison at his Meander Valley Road business and only 15 were in favour of it.

"No I don't have any doubt at the moment that the majority of the residents in Westbury are against the proposed site of the prison," councillor Johnston said.

A new angle was also raised in public question time by Kolmark's managing director Mark Kolodziej, who asked if the town could afford to jeopardise the Valley Central precinct expansion if the prison was to be built in its proposed location.

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The proposed site is at 135 Birralee Road adjacent to Westbury's industrial precinct.

Mr Kolodziej said the industrial precinct had invested $82 million dollars into the community and employed 126 people, without including Tas Alkaloids investment.

He said once the precinct was fully expanded it had the capacity to employ up to 2000 people with an annual gross domestic product of about $800 million per year.

"I think we have a few problems with the proposed site... my concerns are purely economic, economically I felt compelled as the decision could cost Westbury," he said.

"We have the capacity to lose $1.8 billion potentially over five years, $1.8 billion in lost revenue is something everyone should take notice of."

Mr Kolodziej said the projected loss was based off actual figures from the precinct's GDP and showed the loss if the full expansion did not happen due to the proposed prison site.