91Èȱ¬

The Ministry of Justice's plans to close eighteen Welsh courts are part of a wider cost-cutting exercise for England and Wales.

The proposals, out for consultation until mid-September, aim to deliver a saving of £37 million - including running costs of £15.3 million a year and a maintenance backlog of £21.5 million.

Among those on the closure list is Pwllheli magistrates' court, where magistrates sit two days a week. The consultation document claims the court is under-used and its facilities inadequate to hear the necessary range of cases.

But those involved in the criminal justice system say closure would erode local justice and leave some court users living in the further reaches of the Llyn Peninsula facing a potential two-hour journey to Caernarfon.

Accoriding to Eurwyn Lloyd Evans, chairman of the magistrates in Gwynedd, "The rural areas are losing out again."

"It's easy to draw circles on maps and say, 'Well it's only 20 miles and you can get there' - but it's not that easy in the rural areas. This is going to erode local justice in the area."

The closures won't only affect criminal cases heard by magistrates, but family law, public law and other civil cases heard in the county courts - five of which are on the closure list in Wales, including Aberdare, Pontypool and Llangefni.

Barry magistrates, which was earmarked for closure in 2006 but reprieved after a campaign of opposition, is back on the list once again.

Alun Cairns, Vale of Glamorgan MP, has met with magistrates and officials at the Barry court to hear their views.

He tells tonight's programme, "There's an exceptionally important principle here, and that's about local justice, whereby people are tried, and found guilty or innocent, within their own community rather than an alien environment.

"Of course, the financial context is very different now to what it was four years ago, and it seems to me as though officials have said to the minister, these are options we looked at in the past, let's look at them again."

Other closure-threatened courts include Cardigan, Llandovery, Abergavenny and Denbigh. MPs have already raised their concerns in Parliament.

Courts director for Wales, Claire Pillman, said, "I think it's right in the current difficult financial circumstances that we take a look at how we use the court estate across Wales.

"We're extremely proud of the service we deliver to court users in Wales, but we do need to look at those courts which are less frequently used, and perhaps to focus work on those courts where facilities are better for users."