In spite of recent media pressure encouraging staff at Leyhill to spend more time on door locking and fence-hole-checking, the governor of Leyhill Open Prison has said the Annual Summer Prison Open Day and Fete is to go ahead on Saturday. During the open day local residents are invited to come into the prison to take a look around.

Calls for the cancellation of the open day were made after more than 400 prisoners escaped yesterday, a record. The prison only has 250 inmates, but some of the prisoners escaped more than once.

A spokesman for open prisons said: "By definition, open prisons are quite easy to escape from. If they weren't then they wouldn't be open prisons they would just be normal prisons."