NORTH Yorkshire councillors are expected next week to oppose the closure of any more courthouses in the county.

The magistrates' courts committee has circulated a consultation document on a review of buildings which began after a visit by the national courts inspectorate last year.

The inspectorate said there was an urgent need to determine long-term building needs and noted that the North Yorkshire committee was still running a large number of offices compared with other committees with similar workloads and staff complements.

The review has renewed fears that some surviving courts, including Richmond, could be targeted for closure following the end of local justice at Bedale, Easingwold, Leyburn, Ripon, Stokesley and Thirsk over the past seven years.

Views on draft criteria for courthouses and offices over the next three years will be considered by the courts committee next month. A consultation paper on specific proposals is expected in April or May, with decisions being taken by September.

On Tuesday the county council policy committee will receive the views of the council cabinet, which said a draft response to the initial consultation should be prepared "robustly reflecting the position taken previously by the county council on the closure of courthouses and court offices."

Head of committee services Mr Stephen Knight said the arguments put forward for a number of previous court closures had been primarily financial, including the cost of operating lightly used courthouses and of improvements to bring them up to modern standards.

"The county council has in general opposed the closure of courthouses, primarily on the grounds that local justice should be seen to be administered locally, so that it can command local respect and support, together with the parallel argument that local services should be delivered locally, even if that is an additional cost in sparsely populated rural areas."

Mr Knight said the council had appealed to the Lord Chancellor against a number of courthouse closures but had not succeeded in any, despite considerable public support.

l Work is about to start on converting Bedale's old courthouse to a private house: page 3.