Leader: Justice is not serving the people

The closure of magistrates courts and county courts across Shropshire has deprived Salopians of local justice.

That principle has been sacrificed on the altar of cost cutting. Instead of justice being done, and seen to be done, on the doorstep, it is now a remote procedure, administered many miles away from many Salopians.

Apart from being a bad move in principle, it is a bad move in practice. People involved in criminal and civil cases now face significant journeys to get to Shropshire's centres of law - Shrewsbury and Telford.

Shrewsbury County Court closed, along with county courts at Ludlow and Oswestry, at the end of September, with cases being transferred to Telford County Court, although in the event it turns out that Shrewsbury Magistrates Court is continuing to hear some county court cases.

With the problems this is causing through inconvenience to witness, Shropshire Council was today considering an innovative move – giving witnesses in county court cases the chance to give their evidence by video link from their local police stations.

That this idea is being considered points up the folly that the closures of various county and magistrates courts in Shropshire this year represents.

Those who would have attended those courts are now forced to travel in a large rural inland county with indifferent public transport. Main impact is on teenagers and the old, as they are the ones who have most difficulty getting about.

Video link evidence is already used in special circumstances, but introducing it more widely will be a second best solution to a problem Shropshire did not have until this year.

But that is what Shropshire now has – a second best justice system dislocated from many of the people it is supposed to serve.

No better place to be:

Whatever they take away from Shropshire, there is one thing that they cannot close, extract, belittle, or downsize – and that is the community spirit of the county.

Look at the way Salopians responded to the switching on of the Christmas lights in Shrewsbury and Oswestry.

The crowds were big, the atmosphere was fantastic, and the fun factor was large.

It will doubtless be much the same when Telford has its Christmas switch-on tonight.

There are quite a few disadvantages which come with living in a largely rural county like Shropshire. Away from the two big towns, we country folk may feel we are last in the queue for everything, except taxes, school closures, pub closures, shop closures . . .

But when the community gets together and does its own thing, it is special.

That is why Salopians look to other counties and the big cities and do not feel in the least bit jealous.

Whatever they may have that Shropshire does not have, it is not worth swapping the Shropshire life for.