One of the most absurd cuts being proposed is the closure of our two local magistrates courts. It inconveniencies local people wanting to go to court for example traders pursuing debts owed to them. It hampers local newspapers reporting crime. It makes local magistrates less relevant and over time we will end up with fewer local people as magistrates.

Most worryingly of all it means that the police will have to spend huge amounts of time travelling to Lincoln, Mansfield and Nottingham. With police cells in the Worksop police station, it also endangers the size and feasibility of our local police station.

The result of this will be less access to justice, fewer prosecutions, less police on the streets and more criminals getting away with crime. It is the problems of drug dealing, shop-lifting and anti social behaviour that will be most hit. I do not want these people getting away with it and I am sure you do not either.

Coupled with these proposed closures is an announcement by Kenneth Clarke that short prison sentences don't work. But instead of longer sentences, he is proposing that far fewer people be sent to prison. I think this is all about cutting money and it waves a white flag to the repeat offenders whose names and crimes are well known to the police and to me.

I am not prepared to hand over our streets to drug dealers and thugs, who must be laughing their heads off this week. I am therefore calling two public meetings in two weeks time, one in Worksop and one in Retford, to fight these closures and demand that decent law abiding citizens are put first. We need to keep our local magistrates courts open.