There is is a proposal to close Kendal courthouse at Burneside Road.

I worked in the court system for more than 30 years and in that time I saw many consultation processes in relation to other similar court buildings within Cumbria and Lancashire. These included Penrith, Appleby, Keswick, Windermere, Garstang and Morecambe.

Prior to closure and consultation, all the above had workload diverted to other business centres in order to manipulate the figures and the spending on the upkeep and general maintenance of those buildings was either substantially reduced or ceased altogether.

Kendal has gone down the same route. You just have to look at the rotting windows, rusty metal work and blocked and broken gutters to see my point.

By way of example the soft wood windows have never been painted during the past 23 years that the building has been open. They should be painted every five to seven years at least.

This government has also stressed that as well as the viability of the building, the local management team, currently based in Manchester and Preston, should also look at selling a prime site asset in order to try to raise funds.

The Westmorland Gazette:

My understanding is the budget for Cumbria and Lancashire court services is to be yet further reduced by another potential 20 per cent during this current parliamentary session.

This geographical area has no money left so it has to sell off assets in order to survive. Sadly, economics overrides that of serving local justice.

Kendal has gone down the same route as all of the above mentioned sites and all the above have surprisingly closed.

Kendal will certainly follow suit. I applaud the efforts of the save Kendal Court crusaders but believe me, within the next six months, Kendal courthouse will be closed and sold off to developers, despite an open, non-prejudged consultation process.

David Collinson
Solicitor (non-practising) and ex legal adviser to the Justices in both Cumbria and Lancashire
Kendal