Crime-rise fear over closure of courts

An Oldham MP fears crime will rise if courts across the country are closed.

A consultation on closing 154 courts, including Rochdale Magistrates, has now closed and Government will announce its plans by the end of the year.

Last week, new figures revealed Greater Manchester had the biggest reduction in crime across the North-West, falling twice as fast as the rest of the country.

Across the Greater Manchester Police area, crime fell by 14 per cent in the past year compared with 12 per cent across the North-West and 8 per cent across England and Wales.

But Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas fears crime will increase under the Coalition Government’s plans to close so many courts.

He said: “The people making these changes are not understanding the reality of the court system.

“Lower usage reflects the dysfunctionality of the criminal justice system and the failure to enforce court decisions.

“Ken Clarke and his softly-softly approach will make things worse and closing courts will cut our nose off to spite our face.

“The new chief constable of Greater Manchester Police should be congratulated.

“Despite the hysterical attacks on successive Labour Home Secretaries, the fact is that crime is down, but I fear it will go up again.”

Figures released by the Government show the impact on Oldham magistrates could be significant if Rochdale closes.

Between April and June this year, Oldham magistrates court was used for 62.7 per cent of the time and Rochdale 70.5 per cent.

Many MPs argue that if court fines were chased courts would not need to close. Figures show £33.1 million of court fines across Greater Manchester are outstanding.

Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly defended the proposals to close the courts by saying that “people do not go to court very frequently”.

He told a Commons select committee that access to justice was not “just about proximity” to a court, and said he wanted to see more use of video conferencing to reduce the need for witnesses and others to travel.

Ministers say closing the courts would save £15.3 million a year with an additional £21.5 million on maintenance costs.