Crisis talks take place today over Ford’s plans to shut down Southampton’s Transit factory.

Union bosses will meet with convenors and shop stewards at the Swaythling plant this morning to discuss the shock closure announcement made last week.

And later today Southampton City Council boss Richard Williams will come face to face with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

During the talks Cllr Williams will push for more Government investment to boost jobs in the Southampton area.

He will ask the Government to transform the Ford Swaythling site into an enterprise zone to attract new businesses.

Following the closure of the transit factory in July next year more than 500 Ford staff will lose their jobs.

One top of that, as revealed in Saturday’s Daily Echo, hundreds more workers employed by firms with contracts to supply Ford at also at risk.

Those job losses come on top of hundreds of other redundancies announced in the area this year, including 500 jobs at British Gas, and others at Skandia and B and Q.

For all the latest news and reaction to the Ford closure click here