THE BATTLE to keep court provision in Chichester took a new turn this week as it was revealed that a fresh proposal has been made for a continuing justice centre in the city.
The proposed ‘Chichester Justice Centre’ could see a court facility located in the city to deal with non-criminal work.
That includes civil cases, housing cases, cases involving children and other family law matters.
Edward Cooke is a family lawyer and mediator and spokesperson for family law professionals group West Sussex Resolution. He has been leading the organisation’s campaign to keep essential justice provision in Chichester.
He said a fresh proposal was sent to the Ministry of Justice last week.
Mr Cooke said he was hopeful the Ministry of Justice would respond positively to this, and hoped progress could be made towards a solution that provides for essential justice provision to be retained in Chichester over the coming weeks.
He said: “The government originally announced the court would close in March this year.
“However, the County Court continues to list cases into the autumn and indeed beyond.
“So far as we are aware, Chichester is the only court of the 90 or so in the country slated for closure where the closure process has been suspended in this way.”
Mr Cooke has met with the city’s new MP, Gillian Keegan, and both she and Chichester District Council leader Tony Dignum have formally endorsed the creation of a Chichester Justice Centre.
He said this would ensure a court presence could be retained in the city, but in a different location to its current position in Southgate.
He said the new centre would not deal with criminal cases, but would be equipped to provide video link evidence in such cases.
“A discrete location for such evidence to be given would, in our view, be far more appropriate than people giving evidence from a police station, which could be quite intimidating.”
The proposal is the latest twist in a long-running battle by West Sussex Resolution to keep justice provision in Chichester.
The government originally announced early last year that the Chichester Combined Court (Crown Court and County Court) would close by the end of March, 2017 – but that this would not happen until suitable alternative provision was established.
Despite this, the Ministry of Justice announced last September that no court provision would be retained in Chichester, save for a facility for witnesses in criminal trials to give evidence via video link at Chichester Police Station.
Following a pre-action letter threatening a Judicial Review, which was sent last December to the government by lawyers acting for West Sussex Resolution, the government backed down and agreed to consider their proposal that the old Chichester Magistrates Court building should be used as an ongoing hearing centre for combined court cases.
Mr Cooke said he had attended a meeting in March with the group tasked by the Ministry of Justice to consider what alternative provision should be put in place.
Mr Cooke said: “The group was very complimentary about our original proposal.
“However, we were unable to convince all members of the group that it should be adopted.”
He said, however, he was still waiting to hear from the government as to what they would do next.
He said the priority now was to achieve a solution which meant people would continue to access justice facilities locally in the future.
In view of this, Mr Cooke said a fresh proposal was sent last week to the Ministry of Justice for a Chichester Justice Centre to be established in the city.
“This would be a court facility dealing with non-criminal work, including civil cases, housing cases, cases involving children and other family law matters.
“Access to local justice facilities is particularly vital for vulnerable people and those without access to a car.
“For example, people facing repossession, victims of domestic abuse or those going through relationship breakdown will find it extremely difficult to attend courts in other towns, be they Worthing or Brighton.
“This has been recognised by organisations such as Stonepillow and the Citizens Advice Bureau, which have been very supportive of our campaign.”
Read online at: http://www.chichesterpost.co.uk/2017/06/new-proposal-city-courts/
