Your article about the closure of magistrates’ courts and the lack of local justice is very relevant to the situation in Bedfordshire. All criminal prosecution work has been sent from the central county town of Bedford to Luton Magistrates’ Court in the south of the county – to the inconvenience of all except HM Courts & Tribunals Service. However, Bedfordshire Law Society is fighting against this reallocation of criminal work and has a champion in its MP. There have been meetings with the relevant minister and promises of a review of the decision. Local pressure can be useful!

Josephine Duchenne, Duchennes Solicitors, Bedford

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