KENT'S court service is under pressure to extend the consultations over its proposal to close Gravesend County Court.

The town's MP Adam Holloway has now written to the chief executive of Her Majesty's Court Service, (HMCS) Sir Ron De Witt urging him to consider extending the consultation period by at least another month.

The official consultation period is due to finish today.

Mr Holloway is concerned not enough use is being made of the Grade II Listed court building in King Street, where sittings only take place one day a week.

He has also raised the fact the consultation implies the court is not financially viable, when in fact it makes an operating profit of £180,000 a year.

The consultation document, prepared by HMCS's Kent director Stephen Savage, also suggests the building is in a poor state and needs at least £300,000 spent on it.

It says: "The maintenance and improvement costs are hard to justify in the context of limited weekly use."

Mr Holloway has suggested more time should be taken to obtain "more accurate estimates of future maintenance costs."

His call comes in the wake of others from the Public and Commercial Services Union and solicitors using the court who have suggested the consultation document is misleading and in some cases inaccurate.

Kent HMCS has denied this, saying incorrect assumptions have been made by the document's critics.

It says the income of courts goes into the Treasury's purse and is not allocated back to the particular court it came from, to meet its running costs.

It says Gravesend's workload in recent years has only justified one sitting a week.

It also claims Dartford's county court has the spare capacity necessary to take on Gravesend work.

A spokesman said the preferred option being looked at was to close the existing court building and find somewhere else in the town as a "casual hearing" venue, which would cost only £10,000 a year, with the administration transferred to Dartford.

No decision will be made until the outcome of the consultation is known.