Staff at four magistrates courts across the county were on tenterhooks today as they waited to hear whether their courthouses would be closed.

A decision on the future of the courts at Abingdon, Wantage, Thame and Henley was made at a private meeting of the Berkshire and Oxfordshire Magistrates Courts Committee yesterday (Mon, June 8).

But that decision will not be made public until tomorrow (Wed, June 10) - leaving many staff wondering whether they will still have a job to go to.

The four courts have all been under threat since a review paper recom- mending closure all of them down was released for public consultation in March.

The two-month consultation period ended last month and the committee, at a private meeting in Henley, finally made their decision yesterday.

Stella Roberts, chief executive of the committee, said: "A private special meeting of the committee has taken place and a decision has been made.

"We have had a lot of responses to the consultation from court users and magistrates themselves and the committee would prefer to identify the benches and inform them of the decision before making it public." The committee had suggested the closures after claiming there were too many courthouses in Oxfordshire - and not enough work for them to do.

Ms Roberts said each court was judged by four criteria and the four highlighted all fell short. She insisted the main motive behind the review was not to save money.

Mr Ben Ballard, chairman of the Abingdon, Didcot and Wantage Magistrates' bench, who opposed the plans, was among the first to be told what the decision was.

He was phoned at home within an hour of the meeting ending yesterday (Mon, June 8).

He said: "The decision has been made but there is a public embargo until Wednesday. These are always difficult circumstances to be in, but I can't reveal what the decision is until then."

If the recommendations of the review paper were adopted, the Vale of White Horse district would lose both of its magistrates courts - with users expected to travel to Didcot or Oxford instead.

Mr David Quail, the Vale's district secretary and solicitor, said: "We hope they will make their findings known as soon as possible."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.