Moves to close the courthouse at Launceston are outlined in a strategic plan published this week by the Devon and Cornwall magistrates' courts committee.

The current figures for the percentage of time a court is sitting in a courtroom in Devon and Cornwall is 37 per cent, compared with a national average figure of 58 per cent, so the committee expects to be set a target to improve its utilisation. This, it says, 'inevitably requires a considerable reduction in the number of courthouses.'