TODAY we continue our look back over 2019 remembering the biggest stories from the second half of the year.

Here are some of the headlines making the news from July to December.

JULY

Train travellers were able to journey from Bolton to Scotland in one trip for the first time in six years after rail firm TransPennine Express (TPE) launched the first of a new set of daily services which travel between Manchester Airport, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, volunteers helped to spread the warmth by handing out hundreds of quilts to the town’s most vulnerable residents. Bolton Community Kitchen received the donation of 600 duvets, handing them out to some of the borough’s most needy.

Also in July, a report issued by Bolton Wanderers’ administrators revealed an eyewatering £25million in company creditors.

The document, seen by The Bolton News, was a statutory requirement after eight weeks in administration and listed 294 different secured and non-secured creditors, including a whopping £10,050,000 owed to the Fildraw Trust, who manage the affairs of late owner Eddie Davies.

AUGUST

After months of turmoil Bolton Wanderers accepted the resignation of Phil Parkinson and Steve Parkin.

A statement released paid tribute to Parkinson and Parkin, who joined Bolton from Bradford City in June 2016.

News of the pair’s resignation broke via The Bolton News, with Parkinson adding: “I felt it was the right time to go”. A spokesperson for Wanderers said: “It is with great reluctance that Bolton Wanderers Football Club has accepted the resignations of Manager Phil Parkinson and Assistant Manager Steve Parkin from their positions at the University of Bolton Stadium.

Elsewhere, Bolton was chosen to go through to the next round of a £1bn government fund to improve town centres.

The council, which also succeeded in putting Farnworth forward for the Future High Streets Fund, could now progress with its £25m bid for Bolton town centre.

SEPTEMBER

Organisers revealed a final date for the Bolton Marathon, which will be coming to the borough on Sunday May 17 next year. It will be the first time Bolton has hosted a marathon since 1987.

Meanwhile, crowds gathered in Bolton to welcome cyclists taking part in the Tour of Britain.

Cyclists entered the town to be greeted by hundreds of people lining the route.

Also in September, it was confirmed that Bolton will be among the first 100 places to benefit from the £3.6bn Towns Fund announced by Boris Johnson in his first major speech as Prime Minister.

The town is in line to receive up to £25m from the government.

Bolton-born broadcaster Mark Radcliffe published a new book in which he reflected on the death of his father and his own diagnosis with cancer.

Elsewhere, Keith Hill and David Flitcroft were announced as the new management team at Bolton Wanderers.

“I go out in Bolton, I socialise in Bolton, and we have stopped talking about football,” Flitcroft told The Bolton News. “We have stopped talking about football, we talk about administration, about ownership, the doom, the gloom, it has to stop.”

OCTOBER

Bolton Wanderers fans who were arrested following a postponed clash with Lincoln City on Saturday were condemned by the club.

The game was called off after heavy rain meant the pitch at Sincil Bank was waterlogged but some Whites fans had already travelled to Lincolnshire.

Police reported that several people associating themselves with the club were arrested in the wake of the postponement following “disorder” in the city.

Elsewhere, a prolific rogue builder, who conned vulnerable Bolton homeowners out of their thousands of their own savings, was jailed for three years.

A man swindled £50,000 from 14 homeowners across the North West, targeting pensioners with aggressive sales tactics to get victims to agree to unnecessary work.

Stuart Magrath, 39, from Wigan, pleaded guilty to running a business for a fraudulent purpose.

NOVEMBER

Bolton hit the national headlines after a devastating fire broke out at The Cube student accommodation block on Bradshawgate, on Friday November 15.

University of Bolton students were evacuated from the accommodation when the fire broke out at about 8.30pm.

At least 40 fire engines and 200 fire fighters battled the blaze throughout the night. Miraculously emergency services were able to confirm that all the residents living in the block in Bolton were accounted for, but the repercussions of the fire are still being felt with students having to be resettled into alternative accommodation and more than £50,000 handed out to those affected.

In other news, the BBC’s Question Time finally visited Bolton with The University of Bolton Stadium hosting the debate.

A member of the public who was sat in the audience caused controversy when he refused to believe that he fell within the top five percent of the country’s earners and called MP Richard Burgon a “liar”.

When asked to put a question to the panel, the audience member told viewers his £80,000-a-year salary was “nowhere near in the top five percent” and claimed he was not even in the top half of earners in the UK.

DECEMBER

The General Election dominated the final month of the year and Bolton became one of the UK’s key battlegrounds.

Labour stalwart Sir David Crausby lost his seat to the Tories after serving as an MP in Bolton for 22 years, with Mark Logan elected as the MP for Bolton North East in a night of unprecedented success for the Conservatives.

Chris Green held onto swing seat Bolton West for the Conservatives, finishing up with a majority nine times higher than it was in 2017.

Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi scored the only win for Labour on a disastrous night for Jeremy Corbyn’s party.