Barry: An open and shut case for the future of both Dewsbury and Huddersfield magistrates courts

Jun 30 2010 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Barry Gibson on an open and shut case for the future of both Dewsbury and Huddersfield magistrates courts

I WAS sad to learn this week that justice minister Ken Clarke is considering closing Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court.

It is one of 103 “mags” across the country lined up for the axe in order to save the taxpayer £36.8m a year.

I’ve been to Dewsbury Mags a few times – in a professional rather than a personal capacity, I hasten to add.

For those who haven’t had the pleasure, the court is in a modern, bright, clean building located close to the train station and town centre.

It’s a rather pleasant place to sit scribbling in your notebook, and it’s very efficiently run by its 27 staff.

It would be an awful shame if the court were to close – especially as this would mean all the cases from Dewsbury, Batley and Mirfield would have to be heard in Huddersfield.

Because the fact is that the magistrates’ court in this town can’t cope with the workload it has at the moment, never mind take on hundreds more cases.

For those of you who’ve never had the pleasure of visiting Huddersfield Magistrates’ Court, the building is everything Dewsbury’s court isn’t.

From the outside the building on the ring road looks so ugly that even a 1960s town planner would recoil in horror. Once inside things don’t improve, it’s old, run-down and decrepit.

I feel depressed after spending an afternoon there. God knows what it’s like to have to work in that building every day.

Some of the staff are really helpful, but that doesn’t disguise the fact that the place can’t match the environment created at Dewsbury.