The courthouse of Nivelles, a Walloon Brabant city to the south of Belgium, will be closed from Friday until further notice. The closure is due to risks associated with the poor state of the building.
The mayor of Nivelles, Bernard De Ro (Les Engagés), on Tuesday, issued a police order which will prohibit people from being inside the courthouse on the town's main square from 17:00 on Friday, 20 December.
"This decision follows observations made by the Walloon Brabant emergency services," Stéphanie Lagasse, press magistrate for Walloon Brabant, wrote in a statement.
They noted a series of problems that made the building unfit for use, including excessive heat load resulting from the masses of archives scattered around the building, a lack of compartmentalisation to limit the spread of fire and the need to have the electrical installation checked. Certain archive rooms have already been off-limits since June after fungus linked to very high levels of humidity in the basement was discovered here.
Risk of longer processing times
The Court of First Instance, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Walloon Brabant Bar Association will be forced to leave the court. They will transfer their activities to the other judicial sites located in Nivelles, but because the capacity is insufficient, teleworking will also be increased.
Staff will be given limited access to retrieve files to ensure the continuity of the justice service. However, the judicial authorities have expressed concerns that the closure could have an impact, particularly in terms of case processing times. "Measures are being studied internally to relocate most of the hearings to the other judicial sites in Nivelles to limit the impact on the public."
"The only prospect for improving working conditions is the rapid completion of the extension work at Palais 2, for which planning permission was granted in October," said Lagasse. "According to the Régie des bâtiments, the extension is due to be completed and made available in November 2027."
