Lord Justice Goldring, the senior presiding judge of England and Wales, has criticised plans to close 157 magistrates’ and county courts.
Goldring LJ said he wished to take a “pragmatic” approach in his response to the Ministry of Justice consultation paper, Proposals on the provision of court services.
He pointed out a series of “significant errors” in the document, for example, Abergavenny Magistrates’ Court is earmarked for closure on the basis it has not been used since 1999. In fact, the court has recently been refurbished and re-opened in July 2010.
The proposals assumed court users lived in the same location as the court, he said, when in fact many already lived one hour away and their journey to a new court would be double that. Poor public transport meant many would be unable to arrive before 10am.
Goldring J expressed concerns about a lack of “real detail” on utilisation in the consultation document when many judges had expressed concerns about the ability of neighbouring courts to absorb work following closure. He said the £15m savings that the paper identified did not take account of additional costs incurred by the closure. Read more @ newlawjournal.co.uk
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