Local justice is being murdered by cuts and closures | Letters

Your account of the continuing implosion of the magistrates courts system (Cuts and low morale trigger exodus of magistrates, 30 November) should be heeded urgently by the government and society generally.It is not just the court closures (more than 10% already this year) and the disillusion which underlies an accelerating resignation of magistrates, but the profound impact on our civic culture. Unpaid justices of the peace, let us not forget, constitute the backbone of the criminal justice syst