Oh I'm going to Barbados!

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 1st Feb 2008

Lib Dem councillor Elwyn Watkins has described as shokcing the revelation that housing a prisoner in a police cell costs taxpayers £459 per night - the same amount as it would cost of a seven-night stay on the Caribbean island of Barbados, including the flights!

He said, "This is absolutely shocking.

"Almost £1 million was spent in Greater Manchester in 2007, and all because our government hasn't got a proper handle on offender management and reducing reoffending.

"This money could have been better spent on more police officers.

"If we had enough police - we recently lost 216 officers in the county - we could cut crime rather than wasting money.

"This costs five times more than the £77 average nightly cost of keeping a male in a category B prison.

"We are paying five times as much as we should to house these prisoners because the Government hasn't planned ahead properly."

Some £28 million was spent last year housing prisoners nationwide using this scheme which has been codenamed Operation Safeguard.

Safeguard is the Government's contingency plan that deals with prison overcrowding.

There were 2,800 prisoners incarcerated in police cells in Greater Manchester in 2007.