A Staffordshire action group has spoken out about its frustration over the lack of confirmation as to whether a village was on a list of potential sites for a large titan prison.

Richard Holloway, chairman of Fradley Against Curborough Town (FACT) which campaigned against Government 5,000 home eco-town plans, welcomed the Ministry of Justice decision not to go ahead with a 2,500 capacity Titan jail but called for confirmation the village, near Lichfield, was not being considered as the site for a 1,500-capacity jail.

He criticised the Government for drawing up the plans in secrecy and that local people had been “kept completely in the dark”.

He said: “While we are naturally pleased that the Ministry of Justice has finally bowed to public pressure to release the details of this controversial scheme, we remain concerned that there has been no unequivocal confirmation that the Curborough site has been excluded.

“We continue to work with our MP, Michael Fabricant, to secure this reassurance.

“We are particularly alarmed by the justice secretary’s statement that consultation had taken place on this list of potential sites, when in fact the Government has fought to keep this list secret and local people have been kept completely in the dark.

“He also contends that communities are broadly supportive of new prison facilities in their midst and there is a negligible impact on property values. We believe local people might hold a different view.

“In our view this simply reinforces the argument that local development schemes of whatever nature should be devolved to local politicians and officers.”

A Prison Service spokesman said some of the previous sites put forward for the 2,500 capacity jails may be considered but there were no current plans for prisons on any sites except the two revealed in Parliament earlier this week in Barking and Dagenham.