Chichester Society calls for reopening of city’s courts to help clear legal backlog

We write concerning the huge backlog of crown court cases that need to be cleared amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

We have written to Gillian Keegan MP asking her to raise the reopening of the Chichester Crown Court to speed up the handling of this backlog which of course has implications for our overcrowded prisons and those prisoners awaiting trial, some of whom are quite young and all of whom are importantly presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.

Could the vacant court buildings in Chichester, which we understand are being maintained, be used for a period?

We understand that no development agreement has yet been signed with Henry Boot, developers for the Southern Gateway scheme.

Many of us are familiar with the layout of the court building from our time as jurors and believe it would be of sufficient size for jury trials.

At present, our nearest Court is in Lewes in East Sussex and with the number of unheard cases it would make so much sense to use Chichester if only for a few months to help reduce the huge backlog of cases.

Chairman – Peter Evans

Secretary – Anthony Quail

Executive Committee – Rodney Chambers, Christopher Mead-Briggs, Trevor Redman, William Sharp, John Templeton