I read with interest the letter from Hugh Barrett , executive director, Legal Services Commission. He seems to have forgotten that two important components of access to justice are independent advice and conflicts of interest.

It is self-evident that any matrimonial conflict, even if allegedly involving ‘consent’, includes both these components. Now that there will only be one provider in Skegness (summer population 250,000), one party will be reduced to attempting to travel by (largely non-existent) public transport with a buggy of screaming children to another provider in another town. Only one of these towns is linked by public transport. To travel there and back to an appointment is likely to occupy most of the day, raising further problems with regard to school-age children.

Public law child care will be an even bigger problem, involving, as it often does, a mother, at least two putative fathers, possible extended family carers and so on – all of whom need separate representation.

How can this be ‘access to justice’?

Norman Green, Norman Green Solicitors, Skegness, Lincolnshire