IT's full steam ahead for this year's autumn and winter exhibition by the Swindon Artists' Society, thanks to the town's newest attraction.

The STEAM railway museum has offered to give the group a space in its building and both staff at the museum and members of the society are delighted.

There was a danger that this year's exhibition, which has been running since the 1930s, would not go ahead, because it lost its space at the West Swindon Library where it is usually held.

Managers of STEAM decided to come to the rescue after hearing of the society's plight.

Emma Valentine, marketing officer at STEAM, said: "We wanted to help out and we are very keen to use the space we have available.

"Having an exhibition such as this means there is an added value for visitors coming to the museum. We also feel that museums have to be relevant to local people as well as attracting people from outside the area.

"We are pleased as a local museum to be doing this to help a Swindon group. The exhibition will also give something that's slightly different and hopefully bring more people in."

The Evening Advertiser exclusively revealed this week that the flagship Steam museum, opened by Prince Charles in June this year, is facing a financial crisis because it is not pulling in the number of visitors that were predicted.

Taxpayers are footing a bill of £473,000 to help bail the attraction out of its financial crisis, with an extra £26,000 on marketing the museum.

Yesterday the news came that the council will face an even greater bill of £1m because building costs were higher than the estimate of nearly £11m.

But by staging exhibitions like this, featuring the work of Swindon people, it is hoped that visitor numbers will be boosted.

Secretary of Swindon Artists Society, Diana Crafer, said: "We are very thrilled. It is a wonderful place and we feel very honoured to be exhibiting there. Best of all it means we can go ahead with the exhibition, which we thought might not have happened this year."