FOLLOWING the letter about the proposed closure of St Helens courts (July 30) I see that after many months of being cordoned off due to disrepair the steps outside the County Court have been miraculously repaired and are now once again in use.

Call me cynical but I have to question the timing of this. How convenient to mend them during the consultation period. Could this consultation really just be a smoke screen to make the employees, users of the court and the people of St Helens believe that the Minister for Justice is going to take in to account the true facts and figures about the success of the St Helens court.

What about the feelings of the people of St Helens. Have they really already decided its fate. It's a well known fact that buildings get tarted up when being prepared to be sold off. Is this the first step in preparing St Helens court by mending the broken steps.

St Helens, once a vibrant town, has already suffered the wrath of previous Tory and 'Condem' governments. It's mines have been filled in, it's glass industry smashed and the medication of Beechams withdrawn.

Thanks to this government our fire service is fighting to keep enough stations to serve our town and they are now proposing to withdraw a level of law and order. We all know how much this town has been deeply hit by the Tory cuts over the past five years. How much more can this town take?

A petition has been set up at change.org. Please could you show your support for our law courts by signing the petition to show the powers that be that the people of St Helens are against the closure.

We do not want to and should not have to travel to Liverpool to receive justice.

Name and address supplied.