MP vents objection to civil trials move

Opposition to plans to remove circuit judges from Oldham County Court are being supported by Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas.

Oldham Law Association — representing local solicitors and firms — is protesting about proposals, which could mean more people from Oldham and Rochdale having to travel to Manchester for a civil trial or hearing.

Now Mr Woolas, the Immigration Minister, is writing to his opposite number at the Ministry of Justice, Bridget Prentice MP, asking her to overturn the decision.

The law group’s parliamentary and political spokesman, Keith Etherington, of Mellor and Jackson, has already protested to the regional court service in Manchester about the plans.

It will add costs, time and travelling problems for people involved in Oldham civil cases, if they have to go to Manchester for hearings, he added.

Oldham West and Royton MP Michael Meacher, Oldham council leader Howard Sykes and The Law Society are also opposed to the idea and have asked for a meeting with everyone involved. Now Mr Woolas has told Ms Prentice that stopping circuit judges travelling to Oldham, and moving some civil trials to Manchester, breaches undertakings given when the new Oldham County Court opened in 1997.

Mr Woolas told her the new building was intended to serve both Oldham and Rochdale after the closure of Rochdale County Court, and meant family cases could be heard in Oldham.

He added: “At that time I met with the then Parliamentary Under Secretary, Geoff Hoon MP, to support the move to Oldham and indeed the moving of family cases from Stockport to Oldham.

“The whole strategy was to build a critical mass of services at the new Oldham building. The decision to remove circuit judges from Oldham is plainly in breach of that undertaking.”