A senior member of the Island's judiciary has joined the debate surrounding the closure-threatened family mediation service, which has been run by the Children's Centre, on a trial basis, for the past 20 months.

In a letter to the Department of Home Affairs, Deemster Corlett says its planned withdrawal leaves judges and, more particularly, the users of the Island's Family Courts, in 'an entirely unsatisfactory situation'.

He says funding needs to be made available as a matter of urgency, to keep the service running for an interim period, while long-term options are more fully considered.

Deemster Corlett also makes it clear he sees no need for the alternative mediation service, which the department plans to set up later this year.

He says, with the Children's Centre service closing down, he and his fellow judges will no longer be able to refer disputes to mediation, at least until the department's service is up and running. However, that is likely to take many months.

He says it is difficult to see why it is necessary for the government to set up a family mediation pilot service which competes with a fully-fledged operation, about which he has had nothing but constructive feedback.

Deemster Corlett says he is taking the unusual step of writing to the department because he and judicial colleagues involved in family work are very concerned that families, and particularly children, will suffer during the period a mediation service is not available.

He says he would be more than content to see the Children's Centre service continue, possibly with some financial support from government, and if that happened there would be no need for the addtional government run and funded alternative.