DECEMBER kicked off with Walcot Family Centre under threat of closure, one of a number of voluntary groups in Swindon facing funding cuts as the borough council considered how to save £186,000 a year.

Two weeks after reporter Ian Fannon cornered education secretary Estelle Morris on the state of Swindon's schools, she finally promised to grant us an audience provisionally set for December 17.

News dominating the Advertiser front page on December 5 was how primary school exam results had fallen behind the national average, with results for 11-year-olds down by 1.6 per cent on the previous year.

Andrew Nye, chairman of Swindon Association of Primary Headteachers, said league tables should always come with a "health warning".

On December 6 we told how it may not be quite such a happy New Year, with Council Tax likely to rise by about 9.5 per cent.

The problem stemmed from the Government handout to Swindon Council which left it strapped for cash to the tune of £300,000.

Scaffolders Robert Fox-worthy and his brother Mark had a bit of a surprise when they fly-tipped some rubbish, Swindon magistrates heard.

They were caught on film dumping bricklayers' rubbish and gone-off concrete, shown on national TV, and ultimately fined £200 each.

Also on December 7 we published a late special when Swindon Town shareholders voted in an interim board of directors, led by former jockey Willie Carson, at a stormy extraordinary meeting.

On December 10 we reported how a delivery of 43 laptop computers for Swindon councillors cost £125,000, at a time when budget cuts were being proposed for some of the town's most vulnerable services.

The following day we told how £43,000 the council had set aside to help drug addicts may be taken by the council to fund other services desperate for money.

On December 14 Cricklade father Mark Stephenson told how he would serve his own life sentence after being convicted by a jury at Bristol Crown Court for the manslaughter of his baby daughter Sacha.

Thugs hit the headlines on December 15: we reported how three men threatened to harm a mum and her baby as she walked towards Park North unless she handed over her purse containing £15 and three milk tokens worth £6 each.

On December 17 we reported how a woman in her 30s died in a house fire after being trapped in her home at Holbein Close, Grange Park.

Thugs again hit the headlines on December 18, when news broke of how someone tried to steal from the charity box Wroughton pensioners Stan and Joan Williams left when they put up some Christmas lights outside their Coventry Close home.

Youngsters Louise Greenough, seven, and Ellen McGlashan, eight, featured in Dickensian pose on our front page on December 19, asking the Government for more money for our schools.

We finally got our long-awaited interview with Education Minister Estelle Morris, who insisted Swindon Council was not a poor authority and stated flatly that the town would not be receiving extra money to offset what she freely admitted was an unfair allocation from central Government.

Two departures featured in the run-up to Christmas: Town manager Roy Evans quit the club, blaming its financial instability for his resignation; and Dr Mike Lusty, Swindon director of Education, is to take early retirement next year.

Town wasted no time in appointing former boss Andy King to replace Evans in the STFC hot-seat.