Locals to oppose removal of small town court sittings

The Rangiora Courthouse was one of six courthouses closed for earthquake strengthening, last year. Photo / APN

The removal of local court sittings in New Zealand towns would be met with strong opposition by locals.

District courts in small towns including Feilding, Dannevirke and Taihape were at less than 30 per cent usage in the year to May and local mayors are warning central government not to shut them down.

The Feilding courthouse is one of six that were closed last year by the Justice Ministry for earthquake strengthening, and residents fear it will never reopen.

Figures show that it was in use only 28 per cent of the time before it was closed.

Feilding mayor Margaret Kouvelis told Radio New Zealand that the December closure was a convenient excuse to keep the court's doors closed permanently.

"The people of our region would be really, really ... terribly disappointed because our region isn't just Feilding, this court doesn't just represent the 14,000 people, we've got 30,000 in the district and they're as far away as Mangaweka."

Ms Kouvelis said the increased transport costs for people driving further to attend courts out of their district would result in some people not turning up to their court cases at all.

A member of the law society's Manawatu branch, Gordon Paine agrees. He said he would hate to see smaller centres lose their courts.

"The moment you start taking cases away and moving them to bigger centres, the town is poorer for it, quite literally, and also metaphorically, because you've lost that one symbol in your town of the justice system.

"It costs everybody then, to travel out of town and if you start doing that, why not just have a court in Auckland and one in Wellington and forget even the South Island."

Mr Paine said the closure of local courts will also result in police spending more time behind the wheel, and less time fighting crime.

He said there was enough work to keep the courts busy, it was the lack of judges that was the problem.

Local Government New Zealand's Rural Sector chairperson and Opotiki mayor John Forbes said police had a tough enough job to do as it was, and closing town courts would only make their job harder.

"If our government's going to try and make policing tougher then they're going to buy into a fight with mayors."

Courts Minister Chester Borrows hasn't yet signalled which courts will be closed and which won't but said new technology is opening up new options.

Mr Borrows said people should be able to use free video conferencing software such as Skype to avoid being physically in court.

He also suggested that having local courts open just one day a month was an option.

District courthouses in Upper Hutt, Masterton, Fielding, Rangiora, Oamaru and Balclutha were closed in December last year to undergo earthquake strengthening work.