The government has put in emergency plans to help the prison service cope with overcrowding - but a building in Kent seems to have been overlooked.

Blantyre House at Horden near Goudhurst was a Category D resettlement prison for male prisoners and closed in January 2016 “for refurbishment work.” It has not reopened.

Yesterday, Operation Early Dawn was activated which means prisoners will be left on remand in police cells rather than being crammed into overcrowded jails.

The government already has a plan in place called SDS 40 whereby from September 10, prisoners will as standard be released after serving just 40% of their sentences (currently they are released after serving 50%).

The aim is to free up prison spaces, especially in the light of the 460 extra spaces needed as a result of the recent riots.

Keir Starmer has said there are “too many prisoners and not enough prisons”.

Meanwhile, Blantyre House, which can house 120 prisoners, remains empty and there are currently no plans to use it or sell the site.

Sean Holden is the Conservative Kent County Councillor whose division includes Goudhurst.

He said: “The sensible thing to do would bring it back into use.

“There is a serious problem in the prison estate - and I don’t just blame Labour for this, the previous Conservative government should have done more - but leaving a prison empty makes no sense.

“Even if it is not quite up to modern standards, in an emergency such as we find ourselves in, surely these standards could be relaxed a little?”

“Keeping prisoners in police cells is itself far from ideal because they are certainly not intended for long stays.”

David Knight is both a Goudhurst Parish Councillor and one of the ward councillors for the area on Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.

He said: “With the current crisis in prison spaces, it makes sense to look at all available resources, and the government should revisit Blantyre House as a possibility.

“It is in quite a remote location, and I believe it has been pretty much stripped out, but if now is not the time to use it, what is going to happen to it?

“If it is not going to be used for the purpose it was designed for, what is the government’s plan for the building?”

Blantyre House started life as a Fegan's Home, where disadvantaged boys learned skills to set them up in the world.

The site was sold to the Prison Service in 1954 who initially used it as a detention centre for young offenders.

At Horden, on the outskirts of Goudhurst, the prison was tucked away and even today, many don’t even know of its existence.

From 1987, it was used as a semi-open resettlement prison, for serious offenders coming to the end of their sentences, and many prisoners were let out on day release to work in the local community as part of the policy or preparing them to reintegrate with society on their release.

With a low re-offending rate - in 2000, just 8% of prisoners released reoffended within two years against a national average of 57% - it was once lauded by Judge Stephen Tumin as an "example of all that is best about the prison service."

After its closure, it was briefly used as a training facility for prison officers, but even that use had stopped by 2021.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “The former HMP Blantyre House is an older building, now dilapidated and insecure, that would cost taxpayers a disproportionate amount of money to bring back into service for only 120 places.

“We are building thousands of new prison places, including four brand new prisons, to address the demand for prison places and make prison more effective at cutting crime.”