Workers at Honda, their families and anyone else worried by the effects of the closure of the Honda plant in 2021 will be able to get useful advice nearby.

Central Swindon North Parish Council has agreed to fund Citizens Advice Bureau staff to hold sessions at the Pinetrees Community Centre at the Circle in Pinehurst for a year.

While the service is not exclusively for those affected by the Honda plant’s shutting, and the decision to fund it wasn’t taken just for that reason, the announcement of the intention to close the site made in February certainly informed the council’s thinking.

The parish clerk Andy Reeves said: “There was a lot of concerns about the dropping of the advice service. It was down to about 2 hours a week, which is not much when you think it was at 30 hours a week just three or four years ago.

“A lot of the service had moved to Sandford House in the centre of town, and there was a concern that would act to0 a barrier for people in this area to accessing those services.”

Mr Reeves added: “This area s has a high need for such services and there are a lot of people who work at the Swindon plant or in its supply chain.

“The council has agreed to fund the Citizens Advice Bureau to runs services in the local area because of that need.”

The sessions will be held twice a week, and Mr Reeves anticipates that those affected by Honda’s decision will be prominent among service users.

He said: “People will have questions about housing, about their rent payments or mortgage repayments.

"They’ll have questions about employment law and the who redundancy process and the consultation.

“This is an area where quite a lot of people have individual voluntary arrangements and debt management plans and anything we can do to help keep people from falling into debt will be worth it."

Sessions will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays between 10 am and 1pm. Call 01793466499 to book.