BOLTON Council is urging anyone with census queries to contact a national helpline number after the Town Hall was deluged with calls.

Confused form-fillers have been clogging the council switchboard with inquiries about tomorrow's snapshot survey.

But the authority is stressing that it cannot help because the national census, used to calculate public spending on services such as hospitals, schools and transport, is nothing to do with them. A council spokesman said: "There have been a lot of calls and it has meant other people have had problems getting through.

"People have assumed that because it is an official form, it is from the council but all we can do is refer them to the national helpline number. It would save everyone's time if they could ring that number to start with." The national helpline number is 0845 3012001. Calls are charged at local rates. Anyone who has not received a form should ring 0845 301 3000.

This year is the 200th anniversary of the census which is conducted every 10 years.

Extra postal workers have been drafted in tomorrow to cope with the surge in mail this weekend and prevent post boxes overflowing.

Around 300 enumerators have been appointed across the town to supervise the distribution of forms.