THE Evening Advertiser has finally been granted an audience with Education Secretary Estelle Morris, 12 days after we took her to task for not listening to the town's pleas for more money.

A provisional date for a face-to-face interview has been organised for December 17, when it is hoped she will be able to come up with answers to the dire situation in Swindon.

Ms Morris reacted angrily to our front page of November 22, in which we accused her of snubbing the town by refusing to speak to us when she visited West Swindon for an education conference.

She pleaded that she was pushed for time and insisted we had not been fair in our treatment of the issue, despite the fact we had requested an interview on previous occasions.

Following a diatribe directed at our politics reporter, Ian Fannon, she added that she would be happy to arrange a better time for a full and frank discussion of the funding crisis in the week following the conference.

But repeated calls to her department produced no response and it was only yesterday that a date was finally pencilled into her diary to speak to us.

Mr Fannon now aims to travel to London on December 17 to ask Ms Morris some tough questions on the way education funding is to be changed to make it fairer for places like Swindon.

The town currently receives about £6.5 million a year less for education than the national average for unitary authorities, making it the worst funded in the country.

The news comes on the day the Government was due to announce the local government finance settlement (Standard Spending Assessment) for all councils.

That will dictate how much revenue support the town will receive from central government and will be a key factor in deciding how much the council tax will have to rise next year to meet demands from headteachers for more money.

It also comes a day before the publication of the performance tables for primary schools, which are expected to show tomorrow that Swindon is still way behind the national average on SATS results.

Headteachers and councillors had supported our coverage when Ms Morris came to town and today congratulated us for pinning the cabinet minister down to a date.

Andrew Nye, the head of Seven Fields Primary in Penhill and chairman of the Swindon Association of Primary Headteachers, said: "I thought it was a wonderful coup when all the delegates were reading the Adver as Estelle Morris turned up at the conference and it really hammered home the right message.

"Swindon is given a terrible deal by the Government and the ministers in charge need to know there are real people here affected by that. I'm delighted you've got your interview because it's clear you're doing your damndest for more money for schools and Ms Morris needs to listen."

Peter Wells, the head of St Joseph's School and chairman of the Swindon Association of Secondary Headteachers, said: "We should all take every opportunity to talk to MPs and ministers about the funding problems we have in Swindon. I hope Ms Morris will recognise those problems and maybe release resources her department has available to help out. I hope she also encourages other ministers in charge of local government finances to take action."

Swindon Council's lead member for education, Garry Perkins (Con, Dorcan) said: "I'm pleased she's willing to grant an interview now but we will see how hard she listens when the funding mechanism is changed.

"The pressure the Adver has put on has obviously paid dividends and hopefully it can make a difference because things are getting desperate here now."