THE VALUE of unpaid fines in the south would cover the cost of keeping open a threatened Hampshire court many times over, official figures show.

Ministry of Justice statistics reveal that ministers are pushing ahead with cost-cutting plans to close New Forest Magistrates’ Court in Lyndhurst while, on the latest count, £15.1m of court fines remain unpaid across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The sum dwarfs the £180,000 annual running cost and the £380,000 maintenance backlog that officials insist need to be saved by axing the New Forest court and transferring its work to Southampton, ten miles away.

It is also much higher than outstanding court fines in other parts of the country. In Devon and Cornwall, for example, £7.1m remained unpaid as of March this year, while in Gloucester-shire the figure was £3.6m. Hampshire and the Isle of Wight’s £15.1m was among the highest total due in the south of England, behind the Thames Valley, Kent and Sussex.

Yesterday, New Forest East MP Julian Lewis suggested that collecting more fines would be a better way to cut costs than axing court services.

The Tory MP said: “This figure of over £15m in uncollected fines is a very high total and does not compare well with other counties in our region, or indeed with our own total of just under £11m two years ago.

“This certainly suggests that there are major loopholes in the system that allow so many people to escape making the payments ordered by the court.”

He added: “Perhaps a little more effort on enforcement rather than cutting the availability of local courts services might be appropriate, as otherwise people might think the process is beginning to fail.”

Last month, the Govern-ment published proposals – currently out to consultation – to shut down 103 magistrates’ courts and 54 county courts across England and Wales, including in Lyndhurst, Alton and Andover.

It said the closures, if implemented, could save about £15.3m per year in running costs along, with a saving of £21.5m on maintenance costs across the country.

The Lyndhurst court, which opened in 1998, currently deals with crime cases, half of all traffic-related cases prosecuted by the Hampshire Safer Roads Partnership and TV licence prosecutions for Southamp-ton and the New Forest |area.

It is also a specialist domestic violence court.

The Ministry of Justice was unable to provide a |comment.