7:15am Saturday 28th November 2009
JUSTICE will not be moved away from Bolton, despite multi-million pound plans for a new magistrates court complex being shelved.
Yesterday, The Bolton News revealed that HM Courts Service, which was funding the scheme as part of a joint project which would also see Salford get a new courthouse, had pulled the plug because of the recession.
But the Courts Service has confirmed there are no plans to move magistrates court hearings away from the town, as was proposed a decade ago.
A spokesman said: “We are working with stakeholders to re-assess the situation and to review the optimum long-term solution but nothing like that (moving the magistrates court) is on the table.”
The news that plans have been mothballed is the latest chapter in a 10 year saga, which began with a petition by the then-Bolton Evening News to stop the court from being moved out of the town. A committee of magistrates proposed closing the courts and sending people for trial to Bury, Manchester and Trafford.
But, after more than 21,000 Boltonians signed our petition, the Greater Manchester Magistrates Courts Committee announced that funding for a new multi-million pound courthouse, earmarked for land near Black Horse Street and Trinity Street, had been agreed. The estimates were that the building would be ready by 2006.
In January this year, it was revealed that a planning application would be submitted the following month and that the £25 million project with Salford would be ready by September, 2010.
Then last month Bolton Council leader Cllr Cliff Morris revealed the scheme had been deferred.
Mike Garstang, of Bradshawgate-based Garstangs Solicitors and a member of the Bolton and Salford New Courts Stakeholders Group, helped lead the fight to stop the courts’ closure.
He said: “It is a big blow, especially after we fought so hard to save the court. The current court is not ideal and we had hoped, that having been given the promise of a new building, that we wouldn’t have to struggle on for much longer.
“We understand the reasons for the deferment but it is very frustrating .”
Next week, a delegation of officials from Bolton is travelling to London to seek clarification from justice ministers.
andrew.greaves@theboltonnews.co.uk
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