RK/SJA/Cons/MC

6 September 2004

Christopher Leslie MP
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
Department for Constitutional Affairs
Selborne House
54-60 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6QE

Salisbury Courts of Justice

I am grateful to you and to your officials for gentling moving this important project forwards. Of course, the project has changed since its inception in response to maturing Government policy on the unified courts system. I suspect this is the reason that since your predecessor, Yvette Cooper, gave me her assurance that the Government would progress the Salisbury Courts project as swiftly as possible, matters seem to have moved forward very slowly indeed.

First, I would be very grateful if you would give me an update on the timetable for the project. I understand that DCA has completed a “Green Book” analysis which is currently with HM Treasury. When do you expect to receive the go-ahead from them?

I understand that the Wiltshire Magistrates’ Court Committee was told at its meeting on 7th July that once the Treasury has approved the business plan the project will progress to the next stage of detailed design and the tenders would be put out to developers by the end of this financial year with a view to the project being completed by late 2006 or early 2007. Please can you confirm these timings?

The Justices’ Chief Executive issued a standing invitation to any interested Councillors to visit the Milford Street offices to view the current plans for the Salisbury Courts of Justice. He also very kindly extended that invitation to me and I met him for a discussion on Thursday 2nd September.

The internal design looks exciting and innovative. Given its flexibility, it will surely meet the needs of the courts’ service.

I was relieved to see that the design of the building has been discussed with the local Planning Authority (Salisbury District Council) and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE).

Given the regional importance of such an important (and expensive) new building for our courts, I am bound to say that I was extremely disappointed with the exterior design of the elevations. I find it hard to believe that CABE could approve such a building design. I am also reasonably confident that, given their experience of new buildings in our very historic city, the local planning authority would be unlikely to approve them. Anxious as I am not to do anything to delay the project, please can you let me know whether or not the elevations I saw are those which will be put to the Planning Authority? I do hope very much that you will be able to tell me that something more appropriate to Salisbury is being designed.

We were all very much encouraged that the former Permanent Secretary, Sir Hayden Philips, was able to visit Salisbury in order to assess the importance of this project and its timely completion.

Meanwhile, the situation at the Salisbury Magistrates’ Court in the Guildhall continues to be far from ideal. Indeed, because of the physical shortcomings of the arrangements, it has been suggested to me that almost every conviction could be challenged because the physical conditions fall so far short of what is expected in a 21st century court house.

I do hope you will be able to reassure me about the progress of the project, the completion date and the design of the buildings.