WEST Craven, an area which includes Barnoldswick and Earby, is one of only six areas in England and Wales chosen to take part in a test census next month.

The Craven area has been specially selected to help with the testing programme leading to the full national census in the year 2001.

The main aim of the test is to enable the Census Office to evaluate various new collection and processing methods and to test public reaction to new questions.

Results will feed into government proposals to be published in a White Paper in 1998. The test will be voluntary, but the Office of National Statistics is appealing to householders to take this chance to play an important part in planning for their country's future.

Other areas chosen for the test are parts of Birmingham, Brent, in London, Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, Thame in Oxfordshire and Alton, in East Hampshire. Along with Craven they are seen as providing a cross section of the population and types of housing.

In Craven, a team of 30 enumerators, managed by a census officer at Bingley, will deliver an advance leaflet to householders at the beginning of June and the census test questionnaire about a week before census test day, June 15.

Reply-paid envelopes will be provided to help test the 'post back' method.

In Craven, which covers an area from Ingleton to Earby, there are 10,000 households and several communal establishments, including boarding schools, nursing homes and hostels.

Part of the job is to check whether those figures have changed since the last census.

Only those households within the test area will receive forms and not every form will be the same.

Information provided will be treated as confidential and only used for evaluating the test and carrying out further research.

No information which could identify individuals or households will be passed outside the Census Office.

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