A TOWN hit by job losses and the foot and mouth crisis is set to benefit from a £10,000 marketing package to put it back on the map.

Barnoldswick has been selected by Business in the Community rural action programme, the Countryside Agency and the North West Development Agency to benefit from the package.

It will involve the town receiving free marketing advice from a top advertising company to out together a package for promoting the town in the future.

Recent job losses at Rolls Royce in the town totalled 250 which bosses said was a direct effect of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America.

And last year farmers were hit by the foot and mouth crisis which infected two farms and involved contiguous culling at neighbouring farms.

Representatives from the council, businesses and volunteers from Barnoldswick, and four towns in Cumbria, were picked attend a training workshop at McCann Erickson's Manchester office to put together a marketing vision for the towns.

Chris Kolek, from the Countryside Agency said: "The towns were selected from among those who are carrying out market town healthchecks and they are generally those who highlighted the town's image as an issue or weakness as part of this process.

"The next stage will be for the Barnoldswick partnership to take the ideas back for consultation with the local people and feed the results into the town's action plan.

"From the exercise, a guide will be produced which can be used by all the market towns we are working with, as a useful tool for them."

Sue Benson, business development director of McCann Erickson said: "The workshop helped everyone focus on where the key issue for their individual town was and how to identify the influencers of that issue.

"Barnoldswick's brand proposition was: 'Discover a rich industrial heritage with a northern welcome'.

"We split the attendees into town groupings and, working with our consultants, covered all aspects of planning how to make the town brand a focus for marketing activity."