Reading Gaol has cost the taxpayer £1.6m since it closed six years ago, the BBC has revealed.
According to the BBC, a Freedom of Information request revealed that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is continuing to pay for electricity, gas and security at the prison.
READ MORE: ‘The Oscar Wilde Society wholeheartedly supports the campaign to save Reading Gaol’.This maintenance costs up to £250,000 a year with the BBC explaining that the MoJ have spent nearly £700,000 on security and £200,000 on gas and electricity in the past three years alone.
The gaol, where Oscar Wilde was incarcerated, is expected to be put up for sale later this year and be sold to the highest bidder.
These plans have been met with opposition from locals who are campaigning to develop the gaol into an arts hub, a cultural centre with performance spaces, an art gallery, digital hub, maker space and museum.
Heading the campaign is Reading East MP Matt Rodda whose petition has reached over 5,000 signatures.
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