With just one week left to save Kingston Magistrates’ Court, the people have spoken in their thousands: do not close our court.

In just one day, more than 1,500 people signed our petition to preserve local justice for local people when, on Saturday, September 4, Surrey Comet reporters and the borough’s MPs joined magistrates on the streets of Kingston for a day of action.

A Teddington man who signed the petition said: “It’s a short term decision to solve the deficit. We need to take a long term view, not a quick fix. People think it might not affect them, but when something happens to them they need it.”

In June, the Government announced Kingston was one of 157 courts it intended to close in a cost-cutting exercise.

Since then the Surrey Comet and its partners have shown Kingston to be one of the most cost effective courts and one of the fastest at securing justice for victims.

Closure would waste valuable police time commuting to distant courts and hit Kingston’s most vulnerable people the hardest, it has been argued.

We discovered the Government used inflated figures to justify closing the court and that the Ministry of Justice does not own the court rooms but rents them, meaning no money could be raised from a sale.

If the court closed, it has been revealed, Kingston Council would lose more than £150,000-a-year in rent, pushing up council tax bills.

Crime victims, witnesses and defendants, who would have to travel to Richmond, Wimbledon or Battersea if it closed, have signed our petition, together with police officers, rotary clubs, solicitors, legal scholars, magistrates and councillors.

But most importantly, thousands of ordinary men and women from Kingston and beyond have shown how important they think the court is to our town.

David Mulholland, bench chairman at Kingston Magistrates’ Court, said: “We are absolutely thrilled by the support we have received from individuals and community groups in the borough.

“We knew the court was well regarded in the local community, and their support by signing the petition had proved that.”

Now Edward Davey, MP for Kingston and Surbiton, warned it was crunch time as the Wednesday, September 15, deadline to respond to the Government’s plans rapidly approaches.

He said: “Ministers will now focus on this in the next few weeks in the run up to the spending review. It’s a critical time for local people to back our campaign.”

Now is the last chance to act. Every signature counts. Please show your support.You can also visit our online petition at surreycomet.co.uk/saveourcourt/petition.

As Mr Mulholland said: “If it’s gone, it will not come back.”