SWINDON seems to have fallen off the face of the earth.

A glitch with global search engine Google means that when ‘Swindon’ is typed into its map section, you find yourself staring at the quaint village of Swindon, in Staffordshire, and not the bustling Wiltshire town.

That is not the only glitch, for at certain scales it also appears that the town does not even exist.

When people are looking at the map the name Swindon does not appear until you zoom in to a scale of one inch to every two miles, despite smaller towns, such as Wroughton, Highworth and Royal Wootton Bassett all showing at larger scales.

One reader who spotted the mistake emailed the Adver and said: “You may be interested to know that Google have deleted the name ‘Swindon’ from Google Maps.

“No matter how you zoom the town fails to appear or have formal recognition.

“Oddly, Abbey Caravans, however, appears as a district.”

People are now calling for Swindon to be put back on the map.

Gary Mealing, president of the Swindon Chamber of Commerce, said: “I've contacted Google to point out their omission.

“Perhaps you can get your readers to do the same so we can make sure Swindon gets put back on the map, as it should be.”

Robert Buckland, MP for South Swindon, said: “Obviously, whoever was doing the mapping for Google must have been looking at a version that was drawn up before Brunel and Gooch built the Great Western Railway.

“Why on earth is Swindon, Staffordshire, coming up first? I would be happy to ask Google why.”

Google has said it is aware of the issue and is trying to correct it.

A Google spokesman said: “Information on Google Maps is comprised from a number of sources.

“We work hard to keep our maps as accurate as possible and appreciate user feedback.

“People can report an issue with regards to locations and place names at http://mapinsight.teleatlas.com/mapfeedback/index.php.”