Star comment: Moving of courts an imposition

Which Salopians have called for this? Which Salopians will benefit from this?

The answer is likely, in both cases, to be nobody, or at least hardly anybody.

The motive behind the move is obviously saving money and being more efficient. That is saving money and being more efficient in the bureaucratic sense, rather than as it applies to ordinary Salopians for whom the change will mean them, one way or the other, having to pay a lot more if they need to attend these hearings in Kidderminster.

Being forced to travel many more miles to get there is not going to be the most efficient use of their time either.

For professionals and those who, for want of a better term, we shall call civilians, it is a like-it-or-lump-it measure against Salopians’ wishes or best interests. It ignores geographical reality.

Shropshire is a huge inland rural county in which crossing from one side to the other can be a journey of an hour or more. If the northern boundary of Shropshire was a mile or two out of Bridgnorth, then looking to Kidderminster for these hearings would make sense. But it is not and it does not.

According to the Ministry of Justice, reaction to the plans as revealed by the consultation has been “mixed”. And yet the plan is still being pushed through.

Shropshire has already seen a catastrophic decline in the principle of local justice administered locally.

All the magistrates courts that once served the county’s towns have been shut, and everyone has to go to Telford. Now Telford is to lose its role for remand hearings – another blow.

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion and Councillor Richard Overton, deputy leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, have raised concerns and are calling for further talks.

Mr Campion says any savings for the court service could be passed on to the police to pick up as a result of having to move prisoners across a vast area.

In other words, while it might make the court service look more financially efficient, that is the small picture. The big picture is the displaced cost to the public purse in other areas and whether the enormous inconvenience caused to the people this particular service is meant to serve is justified. Asking for views and then ignoring them is not consultation, but imposition.