CAMPAIGNERS fig-hting against the housing of sex offenders in Prescoed Open Prison will get the chance to grill Prisons Minister Paul Gogg-ins next month.

Members of the Usk and Communities Action Group have been invited by Usk town council to attend a lunch meeting arranged with Mr Goggins when he visits the town on Tuesday, February 1.

The announcement came after a meeting of the action group's policy committee and the council's prison sub-committee.

After the meeting, the action group called on the town council and Monmouthshire county council to use their powers to overturn the government's policy of keeping sex offenders at Prescoed.

Several Usk people opposed the Home Office's controversial policy when it was first introduced.

But there was a public outcry when convicted child rapist Robert Neil Stokes absconded from the prison in October and went missing for almost 24 hours.

It sparked a massive manhunt across Gwent and prompted the early closure of every school in Newport and 21 in Monmouthshire after a police alert.

On New Year's Eve, Stokes, from the Abergavenny area, was jailed for a further six months at Newport crown court after pleading guilty to escaping.

The action group claim Prescoed's open prison policy for sex offenders puts innocent women and children at risk.

Yesterday the group's chairman, Paul Starling, said: "It is the action group's view that this government will simply not listen on this issue.

"Will we win? Let's see. But it is now for Usk town council and Monmouthshire county council to kill off this policy. It is vital that we all battle together to stop it."

Last November the Argus revealed the chief of prisons in Wales, John May, believed campaigners had little chance of overturning the government's policy.