Proposed court closures

Bury and Rochdale Magistrates’ Court and Oldham County Court and Family Court are being considered for closure. Both of these courts are currently the 'local' courts for the people of Rochdale; having already suffered the loss of the Rochdale County Court in 1998 and the relocation of Rochdale Magistrates to Bury in 2010.

If the courts close, the plan is to transfer Rochdale’s court services to Manchester.

How will that affect the people of Rochdale?

• Longer travel times

The proposals estimate that 95% of court users will be able to access their new local court within an hour by car – that could mean up to a two hour round trip for court users and their representatives.

Many court users do not have access to private cars and so may be reliant on public transport to get them to and from court, which may increase the travel time.

• Increased cost

The increased cost of travel time to and from court, which will affect witnesses, members of the public and legal representatives, will be paid by the court users. 

There have already been cuts to the availability of and eligibility for legal aid funding and increases to court fees, with further increases proposed soon.

• Delays

Many courts are already clogged up due to late or non-attendance of users, with the proposals due to increase the number of users per court with further distances for many of those users to travel to get to court.

The larger courts, including those in Manchester, are already very busy, often with long waiting times for hearings to be scheduled and for users whilst they are attending those hearings.

The remaining courts are due to be further burdened with even more users competing for the administrative services and advice from their court offices.

• Redundancies

Many of the people currently employed at those courts marked for closure may lose their jobs or have to transfer to other courts.

• Lack of familiarity

Many court users are familiar with the court building, the staff, and the judiciary which can help them feel less anxious when attending court; this will be lost.

• Loss of local services and assistance 

Services provided at local courts by local law firms (including assistance with housing, family, and crime cases) may no longer be available.

What is being done to try to stop the proposed closures?

The deadline for responding to the proposals is 8 October 2015.

Rochdale Law Association, on behalf of its members and the people of Rochdale, has contacted Mr Simon Danczuk MP to raise its concerns regarding the proposals and has sought to arrange a meeting to discuss them further, with a view to representations being made to Parliament.

Rochdale Law Association is also responding to the consultation directly, with the Law Society officially responding on behalf of the legal profession generally.

What you can do to help

Sign the online petition:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105892

If you would like to respond to the consultation directly, you can do so by writing to:

HMCTS Consultation, Ministry of Justice, Post point 1.13, 102 Petty France
London, SW1H 9AJ
Email: estatesconsultation@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk

A copy of the full consultation paper can be viewed at:

https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/proposal-on-the-provision-of-court-and-tribunal-es/user_uploads/reform-estates-national-consultation_official-sensitive_final.pdf

If you would like to support Rochdale Law Association and let them know how you will be affected by the proposed court closures contact Richard Mason:

rmason@molesworths.co.uk

c/o Molesworths Bright Clegg
Octagon House
25-27 Yorkshire Street
Rochdale
OL16 1RH