AN ESTIMATED 500 people attended a meeting last night to oppose plans for a giant £400m “Titan” prison, capable of housing around 2,500 inmates, at a site near Warrington.

Organisers said they were “ecstatic” with the turnout, which spilled over from the main hall into the car park of the community centre where the meeting was held.

It was called after it was revealed that initial talks had been held over building one of three planned super-size prisons to tackle Britain’s over-crowding crisis on the £1bn Omega business park development, close to Junction 8 of the M62 motorway.

The proposal by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is to buy part of the 550-acre Omega site from Miller Develop-ments, for a supersize prison to be opened by 2012.

Many of those at the meeting said the proposed site was unsuitable for such a huge prison, being close to schools and residential areas.

They said the Omega development was planned as a business park, though it is behind schedule and there are fears it will fall victim to the looming recession. Concern was also expressed about whether the transport infrastructure could cope with a prison of the size suggested.

A petition will be launched and a working group established to monitor the scheme.