‘Pray for employment in the area’

The closure of the 40-year-old engine plant, which employs 1,700 staff has insisted that falling demand for petrol cars is to blame and not Brexit.

The Bishops’ Adviser for Church and Society in the Church in Wales, Canon Carol Wardman told Premier the impact will be felt in the whole community.

Speaking during Premier’s News Hour, she said: “It’s a major blow. South Wales is an area that’s been hugely affected by industrial decline.

“We’ve had British Steel originally then Tata cutting back there.

“Of course a lot of people were employed in the coal mining industry, which of course has pretty much disappeared, and now this news. So, it is a major blow for the area.”

The US carmaker has been accused by the Unite union of breaking “promise after promise” to the UK.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “Ford’s decision to shut its Bridgend engine plant in 2020 is a grotesque act of economic betrayal.

“These workers and this community have stayed faithful to Ford, as have UK customers – this is still Ford’s largest European market – through thick and thin, but have been treated disgracefully in return by this company.

“Ford broke promise after promise to the UK. First, it was that it would build 500,000 engines at Bridgend. That fell to a quarter of a million, then fell again and again.

“The company has deliberately…