Melville High School to fight youth justice facility

Melville High School is vowing to fight the building of a residential youth justice facility in the suburb.

The "insecure" facility, for recidivist offenders aged 14 to 17, will provide three-stage, "multi-systemic" behavioural therapy and treatment for alcohol and drug addiction.

It will be run by Youth Horizons, whose chief executive, Jeff Richardson, said the programme was highly supervised and "kids will not be just running around the streets".

The Justice Ministry announced on Monday that the facility would be located on Tainui-owned land in Melville as an alternative to a tribe-owned site in Frankton.

Melville High School board chairman Paul Dunn said he was "appalled" at the lack of professionalism in the selection of the site.

"I think in their desperation for land they've made the wrong decision, and I think Tainui have got a little bit to answer for here too," he said.

"You can't have the gates to a school opposite the gates to a correctional facility."

The school would fight the decision all the way to Parliament, he said.