thanks supasnooper much appreciated i'm on the case

Hi all Long story short our local council did some work on our property and we agreed to pay 15% (about £3000). The amount was never disputed, and it was agreed we could pay in installments by DD. We sent three seperate direct debit mandates back to the council and they never set it up, although they did take payments over the phone and promise agan that the DD would be started. About two months ago we received a summons from the county court, as such we contacted the council who apologised for the mix up and promised that the county court claim would be cancelled. Low and behold a month later we received a judgement in default as we had failed to respond to the claim form. We have since sent the N244 explaining what happened and have been given a court date of the 8th June. We also sent a letter to the council detailing the whole saga and requesting that they contact the court to stop the action as originally promised, which they now deny and state that they are unwilling to stop anything going ahead. We have, however got one of the letters stating that the DD had been set up before the court action was taken. To be honest I am just so terrified about the whole thing, and I really don't know what to do in the court situation. Any advice/help as to how to approach all this would be so appreciated I just feel completely out of my depth. Can I see copies of all the notes that the council hold on me? Thank you all so much in advance, Penny.