IT'S a tough task, but someone has to do it. The economic development team at Swindon Council has to fight a daily battle against the stigma of the town's downtrodden image to sell the town to the world.

The job is vital, because while the town's economy continues to grow, more and more companies are reporting difficulties recruiting the right staff.

With the unemployment level at only 1.7 per cent, there is a skills shortage and more bodies are needed to fill the gap.

But how does one go about attracting people to Swindon, a town widely scorned and underestimated by the rest of the country?

It is a dilemma the five-strong team is tackling by amassing a series of glossy brochures aimed at beefing up the town's image.

The bumper pack includes a Swindon relocation guide, aimed at enticing potential employees who are considering moving to the town. The guide introduces Swindon to the newcomer, giving information on shopping facilities, visitor attractions, the local entertainment scene and schools.

It also provides house and rent prices and options on what part of the town to live in, listing recent housing development areas as well as village retreats nearby.

It extols Swindon as "one of Britain's greatest success stories", before adding: "Swindon is not only a major commercial centre with a wealth of career opportunities, it is a great place to live and experience the best in life."

But it accepts the dilemma the town is in, explaining: "The continuing rapid expansion of the local economy has created local labour shortages and major companies in Swindon are keen to recruit new employees from outside the area to fill the gap.

The council is suppor-ting this growth and expansion, main-taining Swindon's economic prosperity by bringing fresh talent, skills and energy into the local workforce."

To support the guide, the team has also produced a pack of factsheets crammed with every-thing you could ever want to know about Swindon and its economy (for example, did you know that on average, 11,510 people walk through Swindon 's town centre on a Saturday?).

Other brochures include the Swindon visitor guide, Swindon conference directory and a host of more detailed publications, including a list of major employers in Swindon and recent economic reports.

There is also a website which was set up last year as part of the council's inward investment campaign.

The council's economic development officer, Claire Yeates, is the member of the team in charge of promoting and marketing the town to businesses and employees.

While she accepts that the skills shortage is a major issue with one in four firms in the town reporting recruitment difficulties as a direct result she is confident the problems are not insurmountable.

She said: "The likes of Nationwide, Honda and Zurich Financial Services are all still here and still recruiting, so clearly if you put the right package together, you can still attract the right staff.

"The National Trust has relocated here recently, which is a fantastic boost, and our team helped by giving presentations to their staff.

"We got local estate agents to tell them about housing and someone from our education department told them about schools.

"I can understand why they were perhaps not keen to move to Swindon if they lived in London, but it was our job to sell Swindon to them and I think it has a lot to offer.

There are exciting things happening, such as the University of Bath in Swindon's development, so we're not looking at a bleak picture at all.

"What we are trying to do is create a positive attitude about Swindon to attract people to the town.

"We are continually improving the publications we put out. You have to remember that every other town and city is also trying to do the same, so we have to stay one step ahead to get Swindon noticed."

She said the recruitment troubles have hit the IT sector most but the service sector has also struggled in recent years.

"The Hilton Hotel in Swindon is a good example," she explained. "It had to get staff in from Poland to fill some Christmas vacancies.

"It is often the people with the lowest qualifications who can be the hardest to find."

Hilton general manager, Tim Bowler, argued that the problems in Swindon are actually not as bad as parts of the South East, such as Newbury where he was stationed ten months ago.

But he said: "Unskilled and specialist jobs are difficult to fill, whether it's a chef in the kitchen or a room attendant.

"Increasingly, where there is alternative employment offering regular hours, people are opting for that.

"Hotels have realised in recent years that they have got to compete with other employers and pay, conditions and training have all improved."

Nigel Carter, policy advisor at Swindon Chamber of Commerce, believes the skills shortage will continue to pose a major problem for the council.

He said: "Increased growth will be harder to achieve as a sustainable transport policy places restrictions on parking and vehicle movement in the town and potential employees will find the cost of housing or lack of housing opportunities a barrier to entry to the town.

"Facilities in the town for employees have generally not kept pace with the rate of expansion of the town's industrial opportunities.

"This gap is something that the council will struggle hard to deal with.

"It will, for the foreseeable future, create some divergence between employee expectations and employers' ability to deliver and is a worrying aspect of the towns' plans to maintain growth."