Leading lawyer Mike Alexander is urging South Holland people to save Spalding Magistrates’ Court from being closed in cost-cutting measures.
An announcement on possible court closures is likely to come in about three weeks’s time – and it’s widely expected Spalding’s name will be on the list going out for consultation.
Mr Alexander says its closure will hit defendants, witnesses and victims of crime.
He said: “I think it’s vital we campaign as much as we can to save it.”
The court was threatened with the axe in 2010 but a concerted campaign by MP John Hayes, solicitors and magistrates saved it at that time.
One of the nation’s leading judges also supported the campaign to keep the court.
But it’s now considered in court circles to be a lame duck because it cannot accept prisoners after someone fell on the stairs to the dock and a security firm lodged a complaint on health and safety grounds.
If Spalding court closes, people will have to travel to another town – most likely Grantham or Boston – for hearings
• Mr Hayes, the South Holland and The Deepings MP, has pledged to meet local solicitors who want to keep the court and also speak to them about sweeping changes that Mr Alexander says will deny poorer people their own choice of solicitor.