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"They confirmed that decision-making powers in court would not be transferred, but local authorities would have more say in which buildings are used and when courts are open."

Funny that. I seem to remember a committee of local authorities that dealt with Magistrates' Courts. Think it used to be called the "Magistrates' Courts Committee". And they decided which buildings were used, and when courts were open (and even owned the actual buildings, and employed the staff).

It got changed when the LCD Courts Service changed to MOJ HMCS.

But given that there are no courts left (and Greater Manchestoh is the place where they have centralised and closed courts the most) this is a pretty pointless power to have.

And the IT upgrade will be amazing, I'm sure. For example, I received a letter from the County Court Bulk Centre recently saying that they now accept emails for all queries and if you type the correct word in the subject line, it will get filtered automatically.

So they've finally brought the court service technology kicking and screaming into 1994-1995!