An appeal against plans to close Keighley courthouse has been lost.

Bradford council was this week told its 11th hour campaign to save the North Street complex has been unsuccessful.

The building is likely to close by spring with all magistrates' cases moving to the newly-expanded Bingley courthouse.

West Yorkshire Magistrates Courts Committee (MCC) had decided on the move after failing to get funding for a new Court building in Keighley.

Keighley councillor Irene Ellison-Wood yesterday branded the decision of the Lord Chancellor's office as "rough justice" on local people.

"It's a snub to the people of Keighley. I'm appalled that a town our size won't have its own court."

Cllr Wood was informed of the appeal's failure in a letter from the Lord Chancellor's office in London.

The letter states that the department carefully considered the arguments for and against closing the court.

It adds "Several points were made about the loss of local services and increased travelling. The most persuasive argument proved to be that the MCC had demonstrated the work could be absorbed elsewhere without undue hardship to users.

"On the whole this was accepted by the professional court users. It was felt that for the few occasions that most non-professional users may have to attend, the travel involved for individuals was not an unreasonable distance."

Cllr Ellison-Wood counters that many people in her ward, which includes the Braithwaite estate, will not be able to afford to travel to Bingley to attend court. She says: "It will be a hardship for them to get into Keighley, let alone travel to Bingley."

The MCC's original decision to close Keighley was also criticised by leading councillors and local solicitors.

Keighley courthouse has long suffered from space problems, and adult criminal cases were transferred to Bingley in 1997.

Work to build a £5 milliuon replacement building in Keighley was scheduled to start four years ago but the scheme was axed.

The MCC decided that due to the nature of the existing Keighley courthouse, the necessary improvements would not have been possible.

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