There must be real fears that this will lead to closing the court completely – an altogether retrograde step.

Crimes committed locally should be dealt with locally, and indeed reported locally, so justice can be seen to be done.

The reduced sittings are clearly due to the explosion in the use of cautions by the police. No one disputes the advantage of using cautions for more trivial cases, but amazingly nearly half of all crimes are now dealt with in this way.

Last month senior judges, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police all expressed their alarm that serious cases of assault and even rape are being disposed of without going near a courtroom. Not surprisingly, they called for an urgent review of the present situation.

If this disturbing growth in cautions can be reversed, as surely it must be, then Magistrates’ Court will need to be available to resume its proper role in dispensing local justice.

Barbara Preston,

Skeffington Court, Skeffington.