THE chairman of the magistrates' bench in Dorset has vowed to fight to reopen the court in Dorchester.

Harry Barnes has spoken out to assert that everything is being done to ensure the survival of rural courthouses in West Dorset - despite it being the area with the worst cost efficiency in the country.

Mr Barnes' committee has decided that cases will be heard at Weymouth Magistrates Court from July, after this year's Government funding to Dorset's rural courts was slashed by more than £250,000.

But Mr Barnes says the decision of the Dorset Magistrates' Courts Committee (MCC) does not necessarily spell the end for a court in the county town.

He claims that nowhere else in the country is now so well provided for after other areas shut down their smaller courts in a bid to cut costs.

The fight to retain the smaller courts such as Dorchester, Bridport and Sherborne has put Dorset 42nd out of 42 magistrates' bench regions in a national league of cost efficiency.

But Mr Barnes has vowed that as soon as there is enough work to make it practical to list cases in Dorchester, the court will sit again.

He says that whereas counties like Devon have simply closed the smaller courthouses, his committee has just suspended sittings instead of permanently closing them in the interests of local justice being served locally.

He said: "We are keeping Dorchester court under close review and if in the future it does prove practicable to recommence sittings there that is what we will do.

"As rural court houses the length and breadth of the country continue to close at an ever-increasing rate, so does the concept of local justice served locally - the cornerstone of the criminal justice system in this country for almost 600 hundred years.

"Dorset, however, continues to stand firm against the continual tide of budget cuts.

"I cannot give any words of comfort regarding the longer-term future of Dorchester Courthouse, let alone the other rural courts throughout Dorset, but by only suspending the court work in Dorchester, we can keep our options open for the time being at least.

"It is very hard to reopen a court once it has been closed."