THE closure of East Lothian’s only sheriff court has had “a massive effect”, according to a figure at the Edinburgh Bar Association.

Haddington Sheriff Court shut its doors for the final time, despite a lengthy campaign to see it stay open, at the end of January last year.

A court had been a regular fixture in East Lothian since medieval times but court business was moved from Haddington to Edinburgh, with witnesses, accused and solicitors having to make their way into the Capital. The decision angered many in the county, including local politicians.

Now, the decision to close the court has once again been raised at a meeting in the Scottish Parliament.

Stephen Mannifield, from the Edinburgh Bar Association (EBA), said: “The closure of Haddington Sheriff Court in the EBA’s jurisdiction has had a massive effect... Edinburgh is now dealing not only with all the sheriff and jury and more serious cases for the Edinburgh area, but with all the more serious cases from East Lothian.”

Haddington Sheriff Court, on the town’s Court Street, was one of 10 sheriff courts and seven justice of the peace courts across the country that shut.

Concerns were raised in the county that closing the court was the wrong decision.

When it shut, the court served a population of about 100,000 people – a figure that is expected to grow, with more than 10,000 new homes to be built in the county by 2024.

Legal professionals, politicians, community figures and the Courier all backed the Save Our Court campaign, which, ultimately, proved unsuccessful.

Rachael Hamilton, South of Scotland MSP, described the closure of the court as “clearly a mistake”.

She added: “The closure of Haddington sheriff court was clearly a mistake, and as such we are now faced with a backlog in the Court System.

“Ministers told us that the Scottish Court Service had ‘capacity within courts to deal with current anticipated cases’.

“This is clearly not the case and as such I will be writing to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Michael Matheson MSP, to explain why Haddington Sheriff Court was closed in the first place.

“This closure was another Scottish Government short-sighted quick fix that in reality has created even more serious problems in which now there is no fix in sight – let alone a quick one.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service said: “The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service 2013 report outlined our long-term strategy for a court structure model that would reflect justice reforms, improve facilities and services for court users and would be affordable in the long term.

“Our evaluation published in Shaping Scotland’s Court Service – an Evaluation after the First Three Years, confirmed that this strategy is on track and the evaluation data clearly demonstrates strong and improved court performance in the receiving courts, including Edinburgh.”

Last month, East Lothian Council backed moves to relocate Haddington’s police station into the former court building.

The local authority has been in talks with Police Scotland about co-locating police officers and civilian staff into the former courthouse, along with community wardens and other associated council teams.

A business case will now be drawn up and presented to the Scottish Police Authority’s finance committee before a final plan is then presented before the end of the year.