Magistrates' courts

Edward Davey with Councillors Paul Brill and Roger Hayes

Campaign success!!

Kingston Courts Saved!

The Government has announced that Kingston's Magistrates' Courts would not be closed, following a two year fight led by me and local campaigners.

This is a victory for law and order and a victory for local justice.

If Kingston had lost our courts, people would have wasted time travelling - not least our local police. In my meetings with the Minister I argued we faced losing the time of 2 officers a week, when we are still fighting for more police.

Tough campaign

This has been one of the toughest campaigns I've been involved with. At times, I despaired about our chances, so I'm chuffed to bits Kingston has won through.

I would like to pay real tribute to everyone who's been involved with this campaign - it's been a real community effort. There have been so many, but Ian Rathjen, Chair of the local magistrates, deserves special thanks, as do our local newspapers who have played an invaluable role. The Kingston upon Thames Society were magnificent too.

I would also like to express my personal thanks to my Liberal Democrat colleague, Councillor Roger Hayes. As Leader of the Council, he put the full weight of the Royal Borough behind this. We could not have won without the Council's recent work.

Madness to close Kingston's Magistrates Courts

Following the news that the GLMCA had decided to go ahead with closing Kingston's Magistrates' Courts, I vowed to fight the decision "to the bitter end if necessary".

I was extremely disappointed by this bad decision. It undermines local justice and would waste the time of local residents and local police.

I felt strongly that it is madness to close Kingston's Courthouse, when it is both financially efficient and much-needed to deal with local crimes, locally.

The Prime Minister has said he is committed to tackling youth crime and speeding up the youth justice system, so it was madness to decide to close Kingston's Courts, when it has the busiest youth court in South West London.

Thank you....

....to all of you who wrote or emailed me with your support.

Read about the last ditch battle.