Fed-up locals living next to one of Britain's newest prisons say their lives are made hell by rowdy inmates playing loud rap music and swearing 24/7.

HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire cost a staggering £286 million and houses prisoners coming to the end of their sentences.

As a result, the 1,700 inmates enjoy far more freedoms in a bid to prepare them for life on the outside.

But locals living in its shadow say they are plagued by loud noises booming from the category C jail at all hours of the day and night.

Residents are also worried that prisoners who abscond could target their properties, sending their home insurance rocketing.

Managing director Warren Sim, 56, who lives yards from the prison's perimeter fence, likened the noises to a "jumbo jet" taking off. "

The dad-of-four said: "We live a couple of hundred metres away from the nearest wing, where our garden ends there's a trainline and the other side of that is the prison ground. "

"The noise is absolutely ridiculous. "

"Prisoners are shouting out of the window, effing and blinding at each other, and explicit rap music is so loud you hear it in our garden. "

"Then there are the alarms that go off all the time. When an alarm goes off it should be dealt with quickly, but sometimes you hear it blaring away for 30 minutes. "

"Then there's the air conditioning fans. "

"It sounds like there's a jumbo jet taking off in our garden. You go to any hospital in the UK and they don't sound like that. I think someone in the build has got it incredibly wrong. "

"I also heard the building should have been built with non-opening windows so they can't shout out of them but they clearly can. "

"We've spent a lot of money on our home. I've spent an extreme amount of money to make the back garden pleasurable but we can't enjoy it. "

"We're moving to France shortly which means we're going to have to sell up but no one is going to buy it while we have the ultimate noisy neighbours."

"The prison management need to address the issues. Imagine the estate agent coming around and hearing the loud fans and music and shouting. "

"It's all quite random times. You just hear the fans fire up and then you have to shut the patio doors. When I'm on the phone even my customers ask me if I live near the airport."

Mum-of-two Jaclyn Tierney, 47, said she won't let her children play in their garden in case they hear foul language coming from the prison.

She said:

"The fan can go off any time and can be on for hours. "

"Last week it was on for six hours. It sounds like an airport, I used to live next to one and it sounds exactly like a jet taking off."

"The other thing that grinds my gears is the music which is that loud it's like my neighbours are playing it. It's so obscene, it's the f-word, the n-word. "

"I won't let my kids in the garden, I don't want them listening to that. "

"I can't believe they're listening to that sort of music in there, given that they're in prison."

"Everybody is absolutely sick of it, they've just had enough."

Dad-of-one Chris Hasler, 46, said he was worried about the impact of the prison on the value of his home.

He said: "There's a tree that could fall down into our garden at any time that's on the prison land but they won't do anything with it."

"We were told when it was being built that the cells would face inwards. That was a lie."

"It's got closer, higher and from my son's bedroom window you can literally see the prisoners on the landing."

"In some of the houses you literally have prisoners looking into your home."

"It's not just the noise, nobody wants that, it's the privacy, too."

"The noise is not just the prisoners playing music. They have a giant fan that can go on all day, from 9am in the morning until 5pm."

"The prison say it's something to do with the kitchen fans. Also the lighting in the prison means it is never dark. If you get up in the middle of the night and it's like it's daylight. "

"The birds chirp throughout the night because they think it's dawn."

"You've got light pollution, noise, disrepair and people can see into your windows."

"I've lived on this estate for 35 years. When they said were building it we weren't supposed to have this. Everyone is having disturbed sleep. "

"It's not nice having prisoners look into your bedroom windows."

"God only knows how it's dropped the house prices by."

Between 2023 and last year 58 inmates absconded from the jail and last February Ashley Ferrie, 35, became the first inmate to die in the prison after he hanged himself in his cell.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said: "The prison may be for so-called petty criminals but they are still criminals."

"I've always worried about prisoners escaping and breaking into people's homes. "

"I've heard from some people that insurance companies are very twitchy about people living so close to a prison."

The prison was built on the site of the former Glen Parva Young Offenders' Institution, and opened in May 2023.

It boasts five-a-side football pitches, table tennis areas as well as having access to games consoles and computers in their cells.

There is a plush studio for them to learn music technical skills, how to make and repair spectacles, and a £100,000 digger simulation to learn how to handle a forklift truck or drive HGVs.

Serco, which runs the prison, said it had implemented "a number of measures" to tackle the problems. "

A spokesperson said: "We have implemented a number of measures to reduce the noise of extractor fans and loud music, and we remain committed to working with the local community to find suitable resolutions where possible." "

Blaby District Council said they were also in contact with prison bosses.

A spokesperson added: "We have been working closely with prison operators Serco to advise them on ways they can manage noise issues to reduce any impact on local residents. "

"If people are experiencing issues then please contact our environmental health department as both ourselves and Serco are keen to ensure any disturbance from the site is kept to a minimum."