A LEADING Bolton solicitor is travelling to London this week to gain high-level support for the BEN's campaign to save the town's magistrates' courts.

Ed Nally, Bolton's representative on the Law Society, will meet Law Society president David McIntosh, who will sign the BEN's petition calling for the controversial closure plans to be rejected. Mr Nally will be accompanied by Bolton Coroner Jennifer Leeming.

Under proposals by the Greater Manchester Magistrates' Courts Committee (GMMCC), Bolton would lose its magistrates' court, forcing people to travel to Bury, Trafford, Manchester and Wigan. The GMMCC believes the Bolton courts are outdated.

Mr Nally, aged 45, a North West Law Society council member and a partner in Bolton law firm Fieldings Porter, said: "Bolton is Britain's biggest town and the court is one of the busiest in the North-west, so how can the closure of this court promote local access to justice?

"The notion of everybody parachuting into courts that are many miles away seems to me to be a very strange notion of local access to justice. Closures will apply to all court users -- police, probation services, victims, defendants and solicitors."

"It seems to me to be a bizarre shift, given how recently plans were drawn up and approval was granted for a new court building in Bolton."

The news follows the rallying cry issued by Liberal Democrat House of Lords peer, the Right Honourable Lord Phillips of Sudbury, who is campaigning for peers from all parties to act against the controversial plans.

Lord Phillips called on the people of Bolton to rise up and fight the plans, saying: "We are determined to keep pushing and I would urge the people of Bolton to do the same."

As reported in the BEN, the GMMCC wants to close Bolton Magistrates Court because it claims the building is too expensive to modernise.

The news comes as Bolton Council appointed university professor Bill Kapila continues his independent study into the impact any closure would have in Bolton. It is likely to be finished by mid-January -- the same time as the GMMCC releases the outcome of its consultation survey.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, who is in charge of courts across the country, would then carry out a review and give a decision sometime after July.

The Law Society represents solicitors and the public in relation to the criminal justice system of England and Wales.