Summer Adjournment

Gordon Henderson Excerpts

Tuesday 27th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) (Con)]

May I say how delightful it has been this afternoon to listen to such a varied debate? I congratulate those hon. Members who made their maiden speeches—and many of the hon. Members who made not so maiden speeches.

I wish to raise a subject of great concern to many of my constituents: the proposed closure of the magistrates court in Sittingbourne. I understand that hon. Members on both sides of the House will be concerned by the potential loss of their local court and will lobby Ministers hard in an effort to save it. In those circumstances, it is perhaps difficult to argue that my own local court should be treated as a special case, but that is exactly what I propose to do.

This is not the first time that Sittingbourne magistrates court has been considered for closure. However, during the last review, a decision was taken to retain the service, not least because of the unique nature of its catchment area. Sittingbourne magistrates court serves a wide area of north Kent, including the borough of Swale which has a population of 132,000 and is the second most deprived area in the whole of Kent. There are pockets of severe social and economic deprivation, particularly on the Isle of Sheppey. Some 15 neighbourhoods in the borough are in the 20% most deprived areas nationally, with 11 of those areas being located on Sheppey. As you will be aware, Mr Deputy Speaker, people living in deprived areas often make up a higher proportion of court users than people from more affluent areas.

Those people are also more likely to rely on public transport—and that is the nub of the problem. Public transport and links between Sheppey and the mainland are very poor. People without their own transport and who live at the east end of the island will be particularly hard hit by the closure of Sittingbourne magistrates court. If somebody from Leysdown was involved in a court case held in Medway that happened to finish late in the afternoon, it would be almost impossible for them to get home by public transport, because by the time they would have walked from the magistrates court in Chatham to the railway station, caught a train to Sittingbourne and then another train to Sheerness, they would be faced with missing the last bus to Leysdown, which leaves from Sheerness at 1 minute past 6 in the evening.

I use Leysdown as an example, but many other rural communities in my constituency are facing a similar problem. However, islanders in particular would be particularly miffed about the closure of Sittingbourne magistrates court, because until relatively recently, Sheppey had its own court, as did Faversham, which is close by. When that court was closed, we were promised that the court in Sittingbourne would remain open. Closing our last remaining court in Swale would be a betrayal of some very vulnerable people.

I turn briefly to the consultation document that sets out some of the criteria being used to determine the need for a court. One of the criteria is that people should be able to reach a court within 60 minutes using public transport. Helpfully, the consultation document also includes a fact sheet that describes Sittingbourne magistrates court, its work load, its accommodation, the implications for staff and costs and its location, including journey times from Sittingbourne to Canterbury and Chatham, the alternative courts.

Mr Deputy Speaker, you probably will not be surprised to learn that conveniently for the Ministry of Justice the train journey times shown are well within the 60-minute guideline. Unfortunately, however, the figures are not all they seem. For instance, the times quoted are station to station and take no account of the time it would take somebody to get from their home to Sittingbourne station at one end, and from the station to court at the other end. There is also a glaring omission in the consultation document fact sheet. The map that was conveniently and thoughtfully provided to show the relative locations of the courts has airbrushed Sheppey from existence—which is particularly worrying for those of us who live on the island.

To remove the Isle of Sheppey from the equation when considering the future of our only remaining magistrates court is simply unacceptable. To suggest, as the document does, that somebody living at the eastern end of Sheppey could travel to either Chatham or Canterbury in less than 60 minutes is laughable. It is a journey that even with the right connections can take two hours. Closing Sittingbourne magistrates court, and forcing defendants and witnesses to travel either to Canterbury or Chatham, would turn justice into a public transport lottery. I have already made representations to the Ministry of Justice on behalf of my constituents in Sittingbourne and Sheppey, and I urge Ministers now to listen closely to my pleas and announce that our local court will remain open. I plead with them not just for myself, but for all those vulnerable constituents living in this deprived area.