- Target:
- The Government
- Region:
- United Kingdom
A vigorous campaign to safeguard the principles of local justice is being launched by the Harborough Mail.
Concerned magistrates, solicitors and politicians from all sides of the spectrum are joining forces to attempt to save Harborough’s Magistrates’ Court from the axe.
The coalition Government announced last week that Harborough’s court, in Doddridge Road, was one of 103 across the UK threatened with closure as part of cost-cutting measures.
The proposal has provoked an angry backlash in the Harborough community and campaigners are now vowing to fight the plan robustly.
The town has had a court since at least the 1850s.
If it was shut, it would mean all cases being dealt with in Leicester or further afield.
Worried campaigners say this would not only incur travel costs and pile on inconvenience for magistrates, defendants, police, court reporters, witnesses and the Probation Service but would erode the historic principle of "justice being seen to be done" locally.
We, the undersigned, call on the coalition Government to scrap its plans to close Market Harborough Magistrates' Court.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Save Market Harborough Magistrates' Court petition to The Government was written by Michael Whelan and is in the category Law Reform at GoPetition.