LEIGH County Court is open for business as usual.

Court staff are anxious to get the message across following the demise of the town's magistrates court.

Alarm bells began ringing when some people stopped making repayment on debts monitored by the Walmesley Road court after mistakenly thinking it had relocated when the Chapel Street magistrates court closed.

Leigh Magistrates Court -- which hears criminal cases --moved on March 30 from its Leigh base to Wigan but Leigh County Court continues to operate from 22 Walmesley Road where it is business as usual.

The County Court hears purely civil matters, not criminal cases. It deals with matters such as family and divorce related cases and small claims and trials in debt recovery.

It also accepts payments -- but not fines -- on some civil actions. The court has a public office for visitors requiring procedural, but not legal advice about their cases.

Steven Monaghan, acting court manager, said the confusion had led to some serious problems.

He said: "We've had a lot of people coming in asking us when we are going to be relocated which is not too worrying because we can nip that in the bud straight away.

"But some have stopped making payments for debts. When we contact them they say they haven't paid because they thought the county court had closed and they did not know where to they should send their payments too."

Mr Monaghan said he had personally heard of three cases where payments were not made for this reason.

He added: "We want to let people know that we are still here and open for business. We are still in the same premises, we have not moved!"

Opening hours at Leigh County Court are Monday to Friday 10 am to 4 pm.