PREPARATIONS to sell Abergavenny Magistrates Court are underway.

The court on Tudor Street closed during the summer as part of cost-cutting drive, five years after a £500,000 refurbishment of the building.

An HM Courts & Tribunals Service spokesman said: “Preparations for the sale of the building are under way.”

He added: “We would expect it to go on the market shortly.”

In July the Lord Chancellor said that the magistrates’ courts in Abergavenny and Caerphilly would close following local consultation.

Speaking at the time, an HM Courts & Tribunals Service spokesman said that both courts are underused and would require significant expenditure on refurbishment.

He added that the fall in 'criminal business' across Gwent means that maintaining magistrates’ court sittings in four separate locations across the area does not represent the best use of the estate or taxpayer’s money.

Abergavenny’s court was closed in December 2009 for work on plumbing and electrics, roof renovation, removing asbestos to make it comply with the Disability Discrimination Action and fitting a new witness suite, before re-opening in August of that year. It was then set to close less than a year later.

It was then slated for closure in 2010, but it was saved after objections were raised by local people and senior judges.

The Abergavenny Police Station building, next door to the magistrates’ court, is also earmarked to be sold.

A spokeswoman for the office of the police and crime commissioner for Gwent confirmed that the building will is going to be sold but that the date and timings for the sale are still under discussion.