Vital to keep courts in town
WITH reference to the report on July 15 in the Herald on the potential closure of Tamworth Magistrates and County Courts.
Tamworth CAB has started a petition to keep our courts open.
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Under threat: Tamworth Magistrates' Court in Spinning School Lane.
I believe to have a court in Tamworth is very important for many reasons.
People will need to travel 30 miles to Stafford court for many types of civil law cases, but it is people who are vulnerable that will be affected most.
There will be people who have debts and they will be taken to court, and sometimes they can face eviction from their homes. This can be due to becoming unemployed or long term serious sickness. They can receive help at the courts in Tamworth with a network of local support groups.
There are women who have suffered from domestic violence and need to use court proceedings to take out a non-molestation order often with powers of arrest to prevent further violence from the ex-partner against them or their children. Also an occupation order that will stop the abuser entering the family home.
Last week's Herald also reported that our borough council had teamed up with Victim Support to provide help for people who suffer from anti-social behaviour; this will include court proceedings that can be held in Tamworth courts.
If Tamworth was to lose its local court, it will cause hardship and everyone will need to travel to Stafford and support groups will have difficulty with face-to-face contact at court with both client and court officials.
The petition can be signed at the Phil Dix Centre in Corporation Street. Please sign the petition, you may need the services of the court in the future. Look out for the petition at other Tamworth venues.
Keith Nicklin, Dosthill.
3 Comments
by Oscar One Three, Tamworth
Sunday, August 08 2010, 12:43PM
“I agree with both Councillor Chris Cooke, and Bryan. This is a very important right that we have had for many years. It is in fact a priceless asset, to be able to have ones say in a local court to local people who know the area, and to access any service the law provides for without having to travel great distances to strange places to get justice.
We already have a situation where a fixed penalty notice for parking has to be challenged first in Stoke on Trent and then further afield, to be judged by people who do not know the area where the alleged offence occurred. This will be another erosion of our individual rights, where things are dealt with by template rather than on an individual basis. If you do not fit into the template ' the computer says no'. That is not justice being seen to be done.
Things nowadays seem to be becoming slap dash and nobody bothers about things we used to cherish. The Government seems to be clueless about what matters to us.
I shall be signing the petition.”
by bryan, tamworth
Friday, August 06 2010, 7:36PM
“Cllr. Cooke. There is no need for suspicioun. there is an open book on the fact that once again big government simply ignores the populace at large, whilst looking after their own interests. The other problem in this area is that magistrates courts and local police forces have become another political wing in our fragile society. The country has become beset by either extreme left or right, or extreme this or that, with very little middle ground.
A very telling point that you make is the false economy, of which governments and councils seem to excel.”
by Cllr Chris Cooke, Glascote, Tamworth
Thursday, August 05 2010, 9:33PM
“I really do agree with Mr Nicklin here. Social need - and with it justice - is going to suffer greatly as a result of any closure of Tamworth Courts.
But what makes it far worse in my mind is the fact that this is also a false economy. It is one Government department claiming to want to cut it's budget whilst not giving a damn as to how much it costs others. The police, Tamworth Council, and other agencies of government will simply not be able to provide the services that Tamworth people need if their officers are lost to long distance travel every day. It would be madness to even think about closing the Tamworth Courts.
It really does seem to me that this has not been thought out at all. Either that or the blessed bureaucrats of Westminster are at it again - devising cunning ways to cut their budgets that filibuster government intentions to save money, have nothing to do with commonsense and everything to do with costing us more money overall, whilst preserving their own jobs of course. Or am I being just too suspicious?”