A brand new scheme to support local people in the Tidworth Community Area (TCA) is set to open its doors on Saturday 7th October from 11.30am to 12.30 at Tidworth Community Centre, Wylye Road.

It is called ‘Kennet Credit Union’, which is a community based savings and loan project managed and run by trained volunteers.

Credit unions offer people who live or work in the area a chance to save regularly (by cash, standing order, payroll deduction or at a collection point) and also to borrow at a reasonable rate of interest.

Credit unions can enable rural people to access financial services in their own village as collection points can be set up wherever there is the demand and enough volunteers to run them.

The Community First Credit Union team is here to help train people to run their own collection point and to provide help, advice and guidance in getting the scheme up and running.

There are five credit unions in Wiltshire and anyone who lives or works in the county can join at least one of them. The credit unions are named after the district they are based in. The local contact numbers are:

North Wilts CU 07799 735116
West Wilts CU 01225 708315
South Wilts CU 01722 421881
Kennet CU 01380 722301 (Devizes) / 01672 514522 (Marlborough) / 07967 872268 (Pewsey)
Swindon CU 01793 522202