Further delay to town's new courts

12.00.00am GMT Thu 10th Jan 2008

A new courthouse for Colchester - a key feature in the proposed re-development of the St Botolph's area - has still not been agreed according to a Parliamentary Answer given to the town's MP Bob Russell. Not only is there no date on when work could begin, but there are fears that the scheme may not proceed at all.

News of fresh doubts over building a new courthouse come just a week after it was revealed that problems with the Vineyard Gate shopping precinct proposals had meant that a planning application due by the end of December was not able to proceed while attempts are made to resolve them.

Confirmation of yet a further delay with an announcement over a new courthouse, to replace inadequate courts at the Town Hall, came in a Written Answer to Mr Russell from Justice Minister Miss Maria Eagle. Mr Russell had pressed for a progress report on proposals for a new court building which has been earmarked for a site off Magdalen Street near Colchester Town Railway Station.

Mr Russell had asked "what recent progress has been made on the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project for a new courthouse in Colchester?"

Responding, Miss Eagle said: "Work to finalise the outline business case for the Essex Magistrates' Courts scheme, of which Colchester is a part, is being progressed as one of the priorities within the court building programme. This involves the evaluation of procurement routes, including PFI, to ensure the selected route represents best value for money for the taxpayer. The outline business case is due to be completed early in 2008 and submitted for approval to proceed by the end of the financial year."

Three years ago, speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Russell observed that the delay at that time in building new courts in Colchester was "longer than the duration of the Second World War." Today Mr Russell said the delays and the excuses were not acceptable. "Quite frankly, the Government is guilty of incompetence on a massive scale. They do not know what they are doing. Getting involved with a PFI, putting all the Essex courts into a single scheme, re-organising the county's courts, all these have led to delay upon delay. It is simply not good enough."

He added: "There is still no date on when work will start, or indeed if the project will go ahead. I have therefore tabled a further Parliamentary Question in the hope that my persistence will embarrass the Government into taking action rather than allow the project to be delayed even longer than it has unacceptably done already."

Mr Russell said that eight years ago he had put forward a scheme for a new courthouse on the Vineyard Street car park area together with a department store, several smaller shops and an indoor market hall. "I had a meeting on site, discussed this with the Council and the Essex Magistrates' Courts Committee, but sadly this did not happen. Had what I proposed been agreed, we could by now have had not only a new courthouse but also a new shopping development of a scale more appropriate for the St Botolph's area of our historic town than the one currently favoured by the Council."