A former worker of the Ford Halewood plant in Merseyside will today become the 400,000th disabled driver to receive a Ford Motability Scheme vehicle.

Peter Lawrence from Crosby will be given the keys to a new Ford Focus at Peoples Liverpool in Bootle at.

Mr Lawrence, who retired from work in 1985 after 15 years in the metal and body department at Halewood, said: "This is my fourth Ford on the Motability Scheme and the Focus is without doubt the best car I've ever had.

“It's also a lovely late Christmas present to hear that Ford will be paying the £350 deposit on the car."

Motability was set up by the Government in 1977 to help disabled people and their families to become mobile. It enables them to use government-funded disability allowances to lease or buy new or used cars.

A year later, the charity, Motability, was set up to run the scheme - the Ford Fiesta was the first vehicle to be supplied in July 1978. Since then around 1.3m vehicles have been supplied.