THE GOVERNMENT has confirmed it is to shut Bolton County and Family Court by the end of this year and will transfer its work to Manchester.

The Ministry of Justice has also decided that the town’s Magistrates’ Court, currently situated in Le Mans Crescent, will move into the space vacated by the Country Court and will share the Blackhorse Street building with the existing Crown Court, which is to remain.

In July last year the Ministry of Justice announced it was consulting over the closures, part of a massive programme which has led to the decision to shut 86 courts around the country.

But local campaigners claim moving the county and family court means access to justice will become more difficult and expensive for those involved as they will have to travel to Manchester city centre’s civil justice centre.

In a statement, the Courts and Legal Aid Minister, Sailesh Vara said: “Court closures are difficult decisions; local communities have strong allegiances to their local courts and I understand their concerns.

“But changes to the estate are vital if we are to modernise a system which everybody accepts is unwieldy, inefficient, slow, expensive to maintain and unduly bureaucratic.”

In response to consultations over the court changes, the MoJ says it needs to keep Bolton Crown Court in order to handle the level of criminal case workload in Greater Manchester, but described the town’s 1920s magistrates’ court building as “not fit for purpose” and says there are plans to dispose of it.

“The creation of a single centre for crime in Bolton will bring the criminal courts together in one venue with the associated benefits and efficiencies this will create,” states the government’s consultation response document.

HM Courts and Tribunal Service says that moving the workload of Bolton County Court to Manchester will not severely impact upon access to justice as there are good transport links between the two locations, with 88pc of potential court users able to travel to Manchester in under an hour.

But this was disputed by Bolton Community Housing who, in response to the consultation, stated: “We anticipate that far fewer customers would attend (possession) hearings purely due to lack of finance. Also timescales involved in travelling to Manchester would impact on customers with child care commitments.”

The Ministry of Justice claims that Bolton County Court is only operating at 49 per cent of its capacity and says that in 2014-15 it cost £673,000 to run.

In addition saving part of this cost by relocating to Manchester, the ministry says it will also make “significant” savings by getting rid of the Magistrates’Court building.

Consultations with unions are expected to take place over coming months over the impact the changes will have on staffing.

Currently 21 staff are based at Bolton County and Family Court, but it is not yet known whether the move will lead to redundancies following the closure, which is expected to take place between October and December this year.

The government has also announced that, as part of the same review, Bury Magistrates Court will close, with its workload moving to Manchester.