KING’S LYNN: It’s all change at court as two clerks leave...and a third is laid low after a car crash
Presentation of farewell gift to Jayne Clarke deputy justices' clerk. left to right Jean Meldrum, Meher Vanner, Jayne Clarke, Jean Bonnick and Sophia Archer
Two clerks have left West Norfolk Magistrates’ Court at Lynn and a third is not expected back until next month after a car crash.
Jayne Clarke, deputy justices’ clerk for Norfolk, who has been at the Lynn court for 18 years, left on December 31 under a voluntary early departure scheme.
And Cliff Lodge, who started as a legal adviser in Norfolk in 1987 and has been operating from Lynn since 1998, has transferred to the Suffolk courts, based at Ipswich.
With Steve Agarwala, the one remaining regular clerk at Lynn, currently recovering from a broken collarbone and bruised ribs following a car crash, legal advisers have been drafted in from Norwich as cover.
On Friday evening, some of the magistrates in Norfolk gathered at Thoresby College in Lynn to thank Mrs Clarke for the help she had given them over the years.
Val Attenborough, chairman of the Norfolk bench, said: “I have worked with Jayne since the ’90s and Cliff since the ’80s, both highly regarded members of the legal team.
“Cliff is merely changing county but we may still see him in Norfolk, and Jayne is changing direction with regard to a future job.”
Mrs Clarke, who lives in Snettisham and has a 17-year-old son, qualified as a solicitor in 1988 and was a legal adviser in Leicestershire before coming to Norfolk in 1994.
She was initially principal legal adviser to central, south and west Norfolk magistrates, and had responsibility for Lynn, Swaffham, Fakenham, Hunstanton and Thetford courts, of which only Lynn remains.
More recently, she was one of the three deputy justices’ clerks in the county and the youth lead for Norfolk. She also did a lot of training of magistrates countywide.
Mr Lodge’s last day at the Lynn court was on Friday. When he became a legal adviser at Thetford in 1987, his work involved not only that court but also Swaffham, Wymondham, Diss and Dereham.
He took the opportunity to switch to the Suffolk courts to be closer to his home near Bury St Edmunds when one of the Suffolk legal advisers transferred to Norwich.
Since January last year, there has been a single, county-wide bench of magistrates for Norfolk with a single chairman and six deputies. Administration of the Norfolk and Suffolk courts was merged last October under a combined justices’ clerk and deputies in each of the two counties.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for King's Lynn
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 7 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 4 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North west
