MIC award article

MAGISTRATES who sit in Watford and Hemel Hempstead have themselves been judged – and have won a national award.
Their Magistrates in the Community team, who visit local schools and organisations and stage open days in courts, won the top prize in an annual competition run by the Magistrates’ Association.
Cindy Barnett, chairwoman of the Association, announced the victory, and presented a trophy and a framed certificate, at the annual meeting of the West Hertfordshire Magistrates’ Bench at Shendish Manor.
West Hertfordshire magistrates are local people who sit in courts at both Watford and Hemel Hempstead. Mrs Barnett told them that their Magistrates in the Community scheme had beaten entries from all over the country.
She said: “Your team is absolutely exceptional. The award judges were impressed by the range of work undertaken, by the innovation, the team-work and the overall excellence.”

(L to R) Margaret Redding, Nick Crispin, Mo Grundy and Magistrates Association national chairwoman Cindy Barnett at Shendish Manor with the certificate and plaque presented to the West Herts magistrates for winning a national award. Photograph (c) Mick Dennis 2007

Magistrates in the Community is a national initiative to increase understanding and awareness of who magistrates are, what they do and how the courts system works. Last year, the West Herts team made 17 presentations to senior schools in the area, visited 44 primary schools, two colleges of further education and one special needs school. They held an employer breakfast for local businesses and gave numerous one-off presentations and talks to organisations including the University of the Third Age, Towns Women’s Guilds and Rotary clubs. They held open days in which school students visited courts and took part in mock trials and open evenings for people considering becoming magistrates.
Mrs Mo Grundy, who co-ordinates the the Magistrates in the Community team for West Herts, said: “Priti Davda, Marion Brown and Nick Crispin do lots of the organisation and we followed Margaret Redding, who started it all off before there was any such thing as a national scheme. But what makes it successful is that every magistrate on the bench is able to get involved from the moment he or she is sworn in.”
Mrs Barnett presented an inscribed glass plaque and a commemorative, framed certificate to Mrs Redding, Mr Crispin and Mrs Grundy.