POLISH immigrants in Bolton are settling in well to their new lives in the town.

A national report yesterday suggested one in four immigrants to this country from Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe spent no time with British people.

But in Bolton the situation is said to be more positive.

Bolton Council says it does not have figures for the number of economic migrants from Poland, but the number of workers coming to Britain from former communist countries has outstripped early Government estimates by hundreds of thousands.

But Ministers point out that many migrants benefit the UK by filling skills and labour gaps that cannot be met by the UK-born population.

And recruitment specialist C&H Agency on Bark Street East, Bolton, is one of a number of recruitment agencies in the area that has found work for immigrants from both Poland and the Czech Republic.

Formed in February 2006 by Christine Green, the company also has a branch in the Czech Republic.

She said: "They bring with them a tremendous work ethic, to the point where some of my clients now specifically ask for Polish or Czech workers.

"Many eastern European workers are already skilled in trades like joinery and bricklaying. I also have qualified doctors and nurses on the books.

"The rates of pay here compare very favourably to Poland and the Czech Republic and most of them send money back home to their families.

"We all went across to Prague to the office there, because it was important for our staff to know about the background and environment of the people they are interviewing."

According to the national report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the proportion of Eastern European immigrants who intend to settle in Britain increases fourfold within months of them coming here.

More than a third of women and a quarter of men say they want to stay.

Researchers for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation spoke to working migrants from Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ukraine and Bulgaria in 2002 and after EU enlargement in May 2004.

Four out of 10 told researchers from Oxford and Sussex universities that Britons treated them as an equals, but three out of 10 said they did not.

Meanwhile only a third knew how to register with a doctor and only half had received information on the conditions attached to their immigration status.

The survey found about half were sharing a room with someone other than a partner, but some were living in overcrowded conditions by choice to save rent.

One bank in Bolton has responded to the surge in demand for banking services by the growing numbers of immigrant workers in the area.

Lloyds TSB has launched Bolton's first dedicated Polish language service for banking customers at its branch in Hotel Street.

Lloyds TSB has been recruiting and training Polish-speaking staff. It has Polish language brochures available, and identification requirements have been simplified to make it easier for new customers to open a current account.

In most cases customers now only need one form of photo identification, such as passport or EU identity card, to open a current account.

Research amongst the Polish community in the UK, Lloyds TSB's largest foreign national group, revealed that the top banking priority is to be able to transfer money to family in Poland in an easy and safe way.

More than 20 per cent of respondents recently transferred money back to Poland and nearly three quarters plan to do so again in the near future.

The majority transfer between £100 and £500 per transaction and typically send money home every one or two months.

And according to figures from the Home Office, there were 22,087 applications in the North-west for the Worker Registration Scheme - the Government's scheme for economic migrants into the UK - from Polish citizens between June 2004 and the end of 2006.