ABOUT 200 refugee families are due to start arriving in Bolton next week.

Council services are gearing up for the arrival of the first families set to come to the town under government plans to disperse refugees throughout the country.

Authorities in the town have been told they must prepare for about 200 'family units' but about 130 of those will be made up of single refugees .

As yet, education chiefs do not know how many children to expect but they believe schools will be able to cope.

Disputes about minor points such as transport have held up the deal between the Home Office and the ten Greater Manchester authorities due to be signed earlier this month.

But council chiefs are now expected to sign the contract before the weekend -- paving the way for the for the first refugees to be bused into Bolton next week.

Under the contract, Bolton will agree to turn over a total of 135 homes to refugees who will arrive at the rate of about 16 or 17 a month.

Housing chiefs say they will head off potential resentment by avoiding putting asylum seekers in high demand areas and seek to place the refugees in wards where they will feel more comfortable because they have access to mosques, ethnic food stores etc.

Under the rules, they cannot place the refugees in outlying areas because they must live within £1 bus fare of town.

Schools which take in refugee pupils will get £500 extra on top of what they normally receive per pupil and more help from the town's language support service.

Education chiefs say the children of Kosovan refugees placed at Brownlow Fold and Sharples have settled in and the existing pupils have benefited from the experience.

And they believe, providing the children arrive in a controlled manner and are spread out between schools, the education system can cope with the new arrivals.