New Shrewsbury court building nearing completion

Months of renovation and remodelling work has been undertaken at the building in Preston Street.

The move follows concerns that the current crown court is outdated and not fit for purpose.

In 2016 the custody suites at the crown court were found to be ‘dirty, oppressive and contained substantial amount of graffiti’ during an inspection.

Some of the graffiti found by inspectors in the cells was racist.

The new crown court will house two court rooms, where serious cases, transferred from magistrates courts will be heard, and one multi-purpose room which will primarily hear tribunal but also other court work as required.

A HM Courts and Tribunals spokesman said: “Development of Shrewsbury’s court facilities is nearing completion and we will be working with our partners and suppliers over the coming months to finish this work and re-open the court.

"This is part of our world-leading, £1 billion court transformation programme, and will provide much improved facilities for jurors, victims and witnesses and all other court users.”

The town's magistrates court, which opened in October 1994, closed in 2016, and all cases were transferred to Telford, the county's only magistrates' court.

All of Shropshire's remand cases have been heard at Kidderminster Magistrates Court since a shake-up in April.

They were previously heard in Telford.

The reorganisation has led to journeys of more than 50 miles for defendants from the north west of the county to appear before magistrates in Kidderminster.

In some cases defendants have appeared for just a few minutes before having their cases adjourned to be heard in Telford.