Keighley Magistrates' Court is set to close by next spring with all cases being transferred to an extended courthouse in Bingley, it was revealed today.

The move has been made possible after the West Riding Metropolitan Magistrates' Courts Service won a 25-year campaign for funding to improve facilities in the Aire Valley.

The chairman of Keighley's magistrates' bench has hailed the move as good news for the administration of local justice. But a local solicitor - who believes the town should get a new courthouse - says the Government's £300,000 grant will only allow Bingley's facilities to be ''tarted up''.

The money will pay for a fourth courtroom at Bingley, disabled access and lift to the first floor, a witness room, reception area and additional interview rooms.

Work on a new £5 million court building in Keighley had been due to start in January 1996 but the scheme was axed when the Government stopped funding.

Adult criminal cases were moved from Keighley court, in the police building in North Street, to Bingley court, in Bradford Road, in 1997. The latest move will see the youth court, private prosecutions and cases involving fine defaulters transferring five miles down the Aire Valley by April 2000.

Stuart Baker, justices' chief executive for the West Riding service, said he was delighted as a series of previous bids for funding had been unsuccessful.

Ernie Clark, chairman of the Keighley magistrates bench, said: "I'm sure there will be some disappointment about Keighley closing but the reality was that there wasn't any funding to improve or build a new court there.

"I'm not disappointed with the amount and am sure that in the fullness of time we'll try and build on this to create even better facilities in the future.''

But Keith Blackwell, of Blackwell Solicitors and Keighley's Law Society representative, said: "We welcome any improvements but still feel this is the wrong way to do it and that a new courthouse should have been built in Keighley.

"Keighley is a big town, provides the majority of work for magistrates in this division and has the area's major police station and it beggars belief that we're not getting a new courthouse.''

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