Statement by North Antrim MLA Jim Allister:
“I welcome today’s announcement by the Justice Minister that plans to scrap Ballymena courthouse have been scraped. This is a commonsense decision.
” The question which now needs to be answered is how the Department got itself in such a mess. It seems evident to me that the Justice Minister knew that she faced being forced into a climb down as a result of the upcoming judicial review had she not quickly found reverse gear.
“There are many lessons for the Department to learn from this farce. Government should serve its people, not force them to resort to the courts in order to change bad policy.”