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Judicial review launched as test case for opposition to government plans to close 150 courts
The fate of a Victorian magistrates building serving a deprived part of Kent has emerged as a test case for opposition to government plans to close nearly 150 courts across the country.
A judicial review of the lord chancellor's decision to shut Sittingbourne magistrates court this Friday has been launched by solicitors, Robin Murray & Co, who warn that justice will be delayed and rendered increasingly inaccessible.
The consultation exercise, aimed at saving £41.5m from the Ministry of Justice's budget, was criticised as flawed and "perverse" at the high court hearing. Witnesses and defendants will be forced to travel for up two hours to hearings, campaigners maintain.
"I rise in this Victorian court with poor facilities for witnesses, which fails to comply with current court practices and which is not officially compliant with the 1995 Disability Court Act," said William Clegg in a calculated snub aimed at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, "to save a better appointed Victorian court [Sittingbourne]".
The action is the first of several judicial reviews backed by magistrates and solicitors in England and Wales objecting to the closure programme. In west Somerset, magistrates have set up a private company, Save Local Justice (Sedgemoor), to initiate action; in South Wales, Vale of Glamorgan council has lodged papers opposing the closure of Barry magistrates court.
Sittingbourne is the first case to come to court. Other Kent magistrates courts nearby at Faversham and Sheerness have already closed leaving residents of the Isle of Sheppey with long journeys by public transport to those left open elsewhere in the county.
"This is a socially deprived area," Clegg told the high court, "It is in the lowest five per cent of socioeconomic areas in the country. The closure will involve substantial journeys by public transport.
"The consultation indicated that cases would transfer to Medway and Canterbury, but some cases are already being moved further away to Canterbury and Sevenoaks. The result is that there's already a five-month delay in listing trials for bailed criminal cases."
The criteria used by the lord chancellor's department to select courts deemed as having inadequate facilities was never revealed, Clegg told the court. Sittingbourne has better arrangements for wheelchair users than many other Kent courts, he added.
"The survey carried out was not disclosed to consultees and was completely misconceived," Clegg said. One of the criteria, it later emerged, had been whether the courthouse had separate entrances for witnesses and defendants. "Very few crown courts in the country have separate entrances," Clegg said, "This was a perverse decision."
Sam Grodzinski, for the MoJ, said the consultation process had been fair and the closure decision properly made. Outside court, an MoJ spokesman said: "The government is committed to supporting local justice, enabling justice to be done and be seen to be done in our communities.
"Closures will ultimately help to modernise and improve the use of courts in England and Wales. Keeping under-utilised courts open is simply not a good use of taxpayers' moneyand resources must be targeted to best effect in order to provide value for money."
Magistrates, who are voluntary and unpaid, claim that the cost-cutting measures are the antithesis of the government's professed commitment to the "big society". Localism, it is said, is being replaced by an increasingly centralised magistrates service.
Among magistrates and county court buildings scheduled to close are 23 that include specialist domestic violence court systems.
Details of the closures were revealed this month by the justice minister, Jonathan Djanogly, in response to written questions by the Labour shadow justice minister, Andy Slaughter.
"The specialist domestic violence courts were set up … to protect victims from their abusers and ensure justice is done," Slaughter has said.
"The Tories' plans to close onein six of them are an act of vandalism and more proof that their cuts are hurting women and vulnerable people most."
The hearing into the Sittingbourne case continues.