OKEHAMPTON councillor Coleen Herriman was among a delegation from Devon County Council who travelled to London last Thursday to press Devon's appeal against proposed closures of magistrates' courts.
The county council is appealing against proposals by the Devon and Cornwall Magistrates' Committee to close nine courthouses in the region, eight of them in Devon.
In London, the delegation which included councillors from Exeter and Exmouth, met MP Jane Kennedy, a minister at the Lord Chancellor's Department.
The eight courthouses that face the axe are Tavistock, Axminster, Bideford, Exmouth, Kingsbridge, South Molton, Teignmouth and Tiverton. In addition Okehampton faces a review in 12 months' time.
Devon County Council feels the closure programme has been driven by economic and administrative considerations to an extent that has eclipsed social and environmental factors. It says this has unfairly discounted the views of those who serve and use the courts against the views of those who run them.
Cllr Herriman said with Devon's large rural area and small population it was not best served by having courts that were remote.
Although Okehampton is not earmarked for closure at present, Cllr Herriman stressed it was important to continue making the case for the court because it was very important when looking at Devon as a whole.
'Okehampton is strategically placed in Devon — if it were to go it would leave a major part of the county without a courthouse,' she said.
'We emphasised to the minister the size of Devon and the sparsity in terms of the population and how difficult it is for people to access services which are outside their locality.'