UNDERFUNDED, undermanned and under pressure. That was one senior Swindon magistrate’s view of the criminal justice system this week.

Simon Wolfensohn, chairman of the Wiltshire Magistrates’ Association and a justice of the peace for almost three decades, warned the system was stretched and the job of justices harder now than it had been when he started in 1991.

That view was echoed yesterday by Martyn Cook, a Swindon JP for 38 years and now running the chaplaincy service at Swindon Magistrates’ Court.

The Adver spent the day at the Princes Street courthouse yesterday, sitting in on cases in each of the three courtrooms.

The impression given was one of magistrates, solicitors, probation officers and court staff doing their best despite a system that did not always help them.

Solicitors complained of the Crown not serving papers essential for them to be able to advise their clients, while a single, hard-pressed probation officer spent the day running between courts – earning her a special note of congratulations from one senior magistrate.

Emma Thacker, solicitor for one man facing serious child sex abuse image allegations, said she had not received enough evidence from the Crown to properly advise her client: “I can’t check the charges are correct and he’s entering pleas to the right charges.”

Later, magistrates ordered a seven-day adjournment after it could not be clearly established whether one shoplifting defendant had breached a crown court suspended sentence order.

All this matters because magistrates’ courts deal with the majority of criminal cases in the English criminal justice system. Everything from the first appearances of murderers through to people accused of not paying their TV licence.

Nationally, lawyers have spoken of a system in crisis. And while Swindon JPs wouldn’t describe it as such, it’s clearly a term uppermost in their mind.

Mr Wolfensohn is one of the more senior magistrates at the Swindon court. A vet by profession, he is also chairman of the county’s Magistrates’ Association.

“There is absolutely no question whatsoever that the criminal justice system is underfunded, undermanned and under pressure,” he said.

Mr Wolfensohn said of the job: “It is definitely harder. When I first started it was altogether more relaxed. The number of cases we would have expected to deal with in a day was smaller.

“Whilst it was still fundamentally the same, we now have more information to process and the through-put of cases is much faster. The case load is much higher.”

The JP added: “We see more unrepresented defendants.” Those cases take longer to deal with, as the magistrates have to ensure strict fairness. “They haven’t got anyone to speak for them.”

He called on Robert Buckland, South Swindon MP and the newly-appointed Justice Secretary, to take a careful look at the single justice procedure.

That’s the name given to the relatively new process by which those accused of certain low-level crimes, such as speeding offences or failing to pay your TV licence, don’t have to go to court if they plead guilty by post.

Mr Wolfensohn pressed the importance of justice being done in public, rather than by what is known as the single justice procedure: “Judicial decisions shouldn’t be made in a closed room.”

Recent figures from the Ministry of Justice show that around 60 per cent of those issued with notices under the single justice procedure never reply to enter a plea. The Magistrates Association has suggested that people dealt with under the fast track rules do not understand what a conviction could mean for them, leaving them with a criminal record.

Martyn Cook, a former chairman of the Wiltshire bench, is now in court most weeks as part of the chaplaincy service – volunteers who help defendants navigate the oftentimes bewildering justice system.

Speaking to the Adver, Mr Cook raised concerns about the distances defendants were having to travel after the closure of courts at Chippenham. One young man with learning difficulties was handed a travel warrant and told to make his own way home by train from Swindon to Salisbury. It was the first time he had been on a train and he had no idea where the station was, with Mr Cook taking the man to Swindon station himself then speaking to GWR about getting him help switching trains.

Trying to fix the system as new Justice Secretary is Robert Buckland, MP for South Swindon. When some of the comments above were put to him yesterday, the barrister said his government was halfway through a £1bn reform programme “using modern ways of working to ensure swifter and more efficient access to justice for everyone”.

He added: “I am working hard across the criminal justice system to ensure the smooth running of our courts, including here in Swindon.

“The Single Justice Procedure is just one way we are using technology to improve the efficiency of our courts. Moving these cases online means courts can deal with more serious cases, quicker, and ensure more criminals are put behind bars.

“I have asked my officials to write to Simon Wolfensohn outlining my position on the Single Justice Procedure.”