No Plans to Reopen Hartlepool Magistrates' Court

The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that there are no plans to reopen Hartlepool Magistrates' Court, despite vociferous local campaigning.

In his response to a Parliamentary question, Chris Philp MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Immigration Compliance and Courts, said: "There are no plans to re-open this court and we are working with the local council to find an alternative use for the former court property."

"Hartlepool Magistrates' and County Court closed in 2017 following a full public consultation and workloads were successfully transferred to Teesside Magistrates' Court and Middlesbrough County Court.

We will continue to keep our court and tribunal estate under close review to make sure it meets our operational requirements.

Hartlepool Magistrates' Court closed its doors for the final time on Thursday, 19th January 2017, as part of a Ministry of Justice plan to reduce the court of the court estate by closing under-utilised or structurally-deficient court buildings.

Since then all cases in the Cleveland area - by which we mean the area served by Cleveland Police - have been heard at Teesside Justice Centre in Middlesbrough.

The Hartlepool building was closed due to under-utilisation, with Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) stating that it was operating at slightly under half (47%) capacity.

The building, shown in the image above, was in a good state of repair and functional, having been purpose built in only 1979. It did, however, cost £345,000 to operate in the financial year 2014/15.

Despite bulging court lists being compounded by the coronavirus pandemic, the Victoria Road property has stood empty for the last four years.

During the recent Hartlepool by-election the subject of improving public services, including the provision of local justice, was a hot topic of discussion.

Jill Mortimer, the newly-elected Conservative MP for the town, pledged to help Hartlepool "bounce back and thrive after this terrible pandemic" and spoke enthusiastically of the Government's "levelling up" agenda for the north.

The news that the Magistrates' Court will not reopen has been seized upon by political opponents, with neighbouring Labour MP Alex Cunningham saying: "Not only is their failure to re-open the Magistrates' Court a failure of their "levelling up" agenda, but it's deeply irresponsible in light of the backlog of court cases."

Mrs Mortimer hit back: "In the few weeks since my election I have been fighting hard to deliver good things like the £25 million Towns Fund deal, extra funding for Hartlepool College and restoring services like the custody suite.

"I am determined to keep working hard for all the people of Hartlepool and Mr Cunningham would do well to attend to his constituency instead of playing politics with mine."