By Gemma Constable

MP Gordon Henderson has made what he hopes is a 'compelling' case to keep Sittingbourne Magistrates' Court open.

Last week we revealed how Sittingbourne is one of 103 magistrates' courts and 54 county courts in England and Wales that have been deemed under-used and inadequate.

The shake-up proposed by the Ministry of Justice could see total savings of £15.3m per year plus £21.5m on maintenance.

Tory Mr Henderson has written to Justice Minister Jonathon Djanogly urging him to remove it from the closure list.

He says forcing people to travel to Chatham court, which is one of the options along with Canterbury, could cause travel problems, especially for those needing to attend afternoon sessions.

Mr Henderson said: "Closing Sittingbourne Magistrates' Court would cause hardship to a lot of local people and I will fight it all the way.

"We lost our court on Sheppey and I don't want to see the same thing happen again. People who live in our rural communities and don't have their own transport would have difficulty getting to a court in Medway.

"As I put in my letter, closing Sittingbourne would turn justice into a public transport lottery."

In his letter Mr Henderson says: "This is not the first time that Sittingbourne has been considered for closure, however, during the last review a decision was taken to retain the service because of a number of reasons, not least because of the unique nature of the catchment area.

"The constituency of Sittingbourne and Sheppey has a number of communities that feature high in the national league of deprived local authority wards. As you are aware, it is often people living in those deprived areas who make up a higher proportion of court users than more affluent areas. They are also more likely to rely heavily on public transport."

Consultation on the proposed closures ends on September 15. The documents are on the website at www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/consultations.htm