Keith Blackwell, a senior local lawyer, sets out his concerns for the future of Skipton Magistrates' Court - and considers moves to close the cells at the town's police station

Once again concerns have been raised about the status of Skipton Magistrates' Court.

In 2010 following a determined campaign ably led by newly-elected Julian Smith MP and the Craven Herald Skipton Magistrates Court was declared safe from closure.

It has now become part of a Harrogate and Skipton Division and all administrative work is done at Harrogate thus reducing the functions of the Skipton Court which now sits on a reduced basis every Friday for general cases and every Monday for trials although from 1 October 2014 it is likely that the trial sessions will be every other Monday.

In recent years there has been a major closure programme involving Magistrates' Courts nationally which has led to the loss of a great number of Courts including Ingleton and Settle in this area and Keighley and Bingley in the Aire Valley.

To make matters worse the Magistrates' jurisdiction which has historically been one of Justices of the Peace which has been usurped to a great extent by bureaucracy and alternative disposals of cases.

This has taken the form of tickets being issued for many minor criminal offences and for many road traffic offences.

The use of adult cautions and alternative disposals in youth cases has also increased. The Court procedures have also changed quite considerably resulting in less hearings in certain categories of cases. As a consequence large numbers of cases no longer enter the Court system.

These factors have eaten away at the work done by Local Magistrates' Courts. Recent figures released by Harrogate Court show that in the sitting year 2008/09 Harrogate & Skipton Courts completed 8,679 cases. In 20 13/14 that figure had fallen to 5,533 a significant reduction.

Matters are made worse for Skipton Court because large numbers of cases which originate in the Craven area are dealt with exclusively at Harrogate Court, particularly those who are in custody.

There is no video link facility at Skipton to allow custody cases to be dealt with in that manner. If the cases going through Harrogate Court were audited to indicate whether the case arose in Harrogate area or in the Craven area it is likely that a large number being heard in Harrogate will have originated in Craven.

Youth Court cases are no longer dealt with at Skipton and yet this vulnerable group should ideally be dealt with locally but that practice ended because of the difficulties in providing the appropriate personnel at Skipton.

If all the cases arising in Craven were dealt with at Skipton, Harrogate Court may well have difficulty in justifying its existence and may well run the risk of a merger with York. Therefore the salvation of Harrogate Court has been very much due to the diminution of Skipton Court.

Additionally, since 2010 Keighley County Court has closed and its work was transferred to Skipton. This enabled the re-organisation to take place without having to invest any large sums of money, which would have been required if Keighley cases had gone to Bradford.

The result of this is that Skipton Magistrates Court shared with the County Court is now a major County Court Centre and the Civil Court is naturally keen to have as many sitting days as possible.

The ultimate danger is that the County Court cuckoo may want to push the Magistrates out of what was their nest.

The proposed closure of Skipton Police Cells has similar origins. A large expensive Police Station was built recently on the Skipton side of Harrogate. Its existence has to be justified and requires a steady through put of prisoners.

Again, the success of Harrogate Police Cells is in part dependent upon the diminution and now closure of the Skipton Cells. It has been suggested that closure of the Skipton Cells will save an estimated £72,203 per year. This is a modest saving to justify such a major change.

However the likelihood is rather than making a saving, increased costs will be incurred.

Prisoners will have to be transported to Harrogate in double-crewed vehicles and rather than putting extra officers on the beat this will take officers away from the Craven area whilst they deliver prisoners to Harrogate, book them into custody and return to their duties.

On some occasions this may take a number of hours particularly for the officers travelling from Ingleton and Settle.

The operations may involve the payment of overtime to officers who are delayed at the end of their shifts and there will no doubt be problems in bad weather all of which will add to the expense of this change even without considering the wear and tear on the officers and their vehicles.

Finally, Skipton Police Station itself is much diminished from its previous stature.

The opening times are now very limited and the closure of the cells will presumably mean that there will be very few officers in the Police Station at certain times.

This is particularly unfortunate for a town of significant size which is growing and which also covers a large rural area. North Yorkshire Police should review their Operational Police Model before the impact and consequences of what is about to be implemented become all too obvious to the public , the Crime Commissioner, the Police and Council Tax payers.