WORKERS at Eastleigh's train repair depot could find out tomorrow if they have a future in the town.

The Daily Echo revealed last week how 450 full time and 100 contract workers feared losing their jobs as engineering giant Alstom held meetings to review the future of the site.

Trade union representatives are playing their cards close to their chest but have said that Alstom, a French-owned company, will brief the workers tomorrow over any job cuts and the future of the site.

The depot for train repairs and refurbishment is one of the town's biggest employers.

Last year the company, which built Southampton's £550m Queen Mary 2, repeatedly made the headlines after racking up debts of £3.2 billion.

The French government stepped in during last summer and saved the company from bankruptcy.

A crunch meeting between Alstom bosses and union leaders took place on December 8 in Rugby, Warwickshire, in a bid to thrash out cost-cutting plans that were acceptable to both sides.

It has been well-known that the site was not doing well and the talks surrounded the future of the Eastleigh depot as well as three other centres in the UK.

An Eastleigh Council spokesman said the authority was aware of rumours of redundancies but had received no formal contact from Alstom with regard to the future of the business.

The uncertainty is another blow for the town, which has already seen a series of major employers leave the area, including pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which relocated leaving scores jobless.