Rallying call over future of Shropshire courts
Wednesday 15th September 2010, 6:00PM BST.
A final rallying call has been made by a steering group hoping to prevent sweeping court closures across Shropshire as public consultation over the plans was brought to a close today.
Jeremy Taylor, from Wace Morgan Solicitor, said he was recently joined by a handful other representatives including Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski on a trip to Whitehall to meet with justice ministers to lobby against the moves and he was confident the chambers in Shrewsbury would be saved.
Mr Talyor said it was critical for the population in the south and west of the county that Shrewsbury County Court – which has been named on a closure hit list – remained in use.
Having laid out a map of Shropshire in front of MP Jonathan Djanogly, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, he said they had put a strong case across.
He said: “We are one of the only towns to have sent people all the way to London to meet with justice ministers about the issue. We took a map of Shropshire to point out how the moves would affect the region, in particular people in the south and west of the county.
“We were able to talk about the decisions which we believe are being made by people who do not understand the county or the way it works. We put across a lengthy submission and we made clear the varying social arguments.”
Ludlow, Oswestry and Market Drayton magistrates courts, along with Shrewsbury, Oswestry and Ludlow county courts, are on a list under scrutiny as the Government grapples with reducing Britain’s £155 billion deficit.
The Public and Commercial Services union was due to stage protests outside the Ministry of Justice in London today.
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it’s not just the magistrates courts that are closing though its the proposed closure of shrewsbury county court that will caus ethe most problems. People seem to be forgetting that if shrewsbury county court closes it will have a detrimental effect on personal insolvency issues in this county and will cause huge pronlems. We need to remember that the courts are used for insolvency issues too, and not just legal and family law.
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This whinge has nothing to do with the pending loss of the age old lucrative business of Shrewsbury town centre solicitors simply popping up the road to court for acouple of hours to make silly money (especially from legal aid) does it?
But Shrewsbury briefs have nothing to fear as long as Mr Taylor’s ‘handful of representatives’ led by Mr Kawczynski are leading the fight – or do they? In reality we all know damn well that the justice ministers have been planning court closures across the UK for a long time and ‘putting a strong case across’ will do nothing whatsoever to stop them doing it.
All that Mr Taylor’s ‘handful of representatives’ can hope for now is that the powers that be pay attention to one of Kawczynski’s legendary ‘strongest of letters’ – who is he I hear them say.
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