The union representing staff at a North Yorkshire courthouse has called for an improvement in safety measures for court officials.

AMO, the union for magistrates' courts staff, has been seeking a better safety deal for two years, but its pleas for more cash to be ploughed into security measures have been unsuccessful.

And after recent high-profile cases in which defendents have attempted to escape from custody, the union has stepped up its campaign. It is being led by one of the court clerks at Harrogate, Andrew Barton, who is AMO's national councillor for North Yorkshire and Cleveland.

Since the courthouse opened ten years ago, with virtually no security measures in place in public areas, there have been four escape incidents.

Mr Barton said the risk had to be kept to the absolute minimum.

"Unfortunately, the result of all this effort is that proper levels of security - metal detector arches, x-ray machines for baggage and sufficient trained security personnel - is still very patchy.

In many places such as North Yorkshire, such levels of security are virtually non-existent," said Mr Barton.

The union is now calling on the Lord Chancellor's Department, the Home Office and the Treasury to take immediate action to provide funds to allow every court in the country proper levels of security.

Updated: 10:20 Thursday, January 18, 2001