A HUGE backlog of cases at Gloucester Crown Court is to be tackled by the opening of a temporary third courtroom later this year.

With almost 300 cases in the pipeline, Gloucester is one of the busiest court centres in the country and defendants and witnesses currently have to wait six months or more for trials to take place.

Resident judges at the court have commented several times in recent months on the unacceptably long delays in justice taking its course.

Now, court officials are to utilise the number one court at nearby Gloucester Magistrates Court for crown court jury trials and appeal hearings.

Conversion work is under way to prepare the Sixties courtroom for Crown Court hearings and staff have held a mock hearing to ensure it will be suitable.

The press benches on one side of the courtroom will become a jury box and the secure magistrates court dock will be the witness box.

A court official said "We will use the magistrates courtroom only for trials of less serious cases where defendants are not remanded in custody and are unlikely to receive jail sentences. "

The temporary court will run for eight weeks during October and November - providing the prospect of the waiting list being significantly cut by Christmas.

The move is the answer to the prayers of regular Gloucester judges Jamie Tabor QC and William Hart who have both expressed their exasperation at the length of time defendants have to wait for their trials.

Last November Judge Hart said "We have more outstanding cases than ever in our history. We have got just over half the number of outstanding cases that Bristol has yet we are a two court centre and Bristol is a ten court centre."

He revealed then that sixty of Gloucester's cases had been sent to Bristol to ease the workload - and similar offloading has continued to take place since then.

Judge Hart said at that time that only if Gloucester went from two courts to four could it cut the backlog down significantly and deliver justice in a more acceptable time frame.

Only once before has Gloucester crown court had a third courtroom - more than a decade ago the disused Cirencester Magistrates courthouse was deployed for one week a month to help cut the waiting list but that ceased after about two years.

This week, the Gloucester caseload stood at around 280 and in recent months has touched 300.

Solicitor/advocate Jon Holmes, who regularly represents defendants at the Crown court, has given a cautious welcome to the plans for a temporary extra court in the magistrates building.

But he said he was concerned about whether there will be enough space for full blown trials with judge, 12 jurors, ushers, witnesses, defence and prosecution teams, court workers and members of the public all being packed into the room.