Peter Dent intends to revive Justice of the Peace service in Thurgoona

Peter Dent, a Thurgoona resident with 40 years of JP experience, intends to revitalise the public service at the Thurgoona Community Centre.

"Some four years ago, Albury Court House offered a JP service to the public, a service well utilised," he said.

"The Albury Court House service closure was due to COVID, among other factors, but the Albury court is still getting all these inquiries."

JPs are volunteers appointed by the NSW governor. Their primary roles are to witness a person making a statutory declaration or affidavit, and to certify copies of original documents.

Volunteers must be of or over the age of 18 and an Australian citizen.

Mr Dent said the declining numbers of JPs is due to younger people not willing to volunteer and older people, who may not be completely literate when it comes to computers, struggling with the online test.

"People are pretty desperate to get a JP and they are hard to locate nowadays," he said.

"We've done all the groundwork to get things going at Thurgoona; however, we just need to get the volunteers."

Providing Mr Dent receives sufficient interest, he could have the service operational in two to three weeks.

"But to get this off the ground we would need about eight JPs without overworking anyone," he said.

Operational days and hours are not yet finalised, but Mr Dent sees the service initially operating three days per week for two hours. The suggested times are Tuesday and Thursday, 1pm-3pm, and Saturday 10am-12pm.

"I would like to see this develop into a situation where people could not only come to see a JP, but they could come and get assistance in understanding their documentation," Mr Dent said.

"It can also assist the multicultural residents and others to understand and complete forms."

Interested JPs should contact Thurgoona Community Centre on (02) 6043 1588 for further information.

"The JP service is a great opportunity to fill in a couple of pleasant and interesting hours serving the community," Mr Dent said.

"The coordinator will also keep all JPs updated with the ever-changing requirements and roles."

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