- A chef who got up at 5am to trek into Kingston Hospital in February's snowfall was awarded £25,000 compensation by an employment tribunal after being sacked for eating a piece of garlic bread at work later that day.

Moroccan born Hamid Elkhiyari, 53, had worked at the hospital for 23 years and was highly regarded before being fired by ISS Mediclean.

His boss, ISS witness Alain Ilunga, who was arrested under suspicion of blackmail weeks before the tribunal, was not present.

Offered his job back by the tribunal Mr Elkhiyari said: "ISS is the worst company you could ever work for. I will never go back."

- The Cricketers pub had its licence to sell alcohol revoked due to a police investigation into a suspected £300,000 credit card fraud with the landlord Charbel El Khoury arrested on suspicion of fraud.

Detectives were trying to find out whether stock, rent, council rates and insurance were paid for on a stolen card, a licensing hearing was told.

An application from another landlord who responded to an advert on Gumtree to keep the Fairfield South pub open over Christmas was also opposed by police.

- An estimated 80,000 shoppers squeezed into the streets of Kingston to watch Father Christmas turn on towns' lights prompting town centre management to suggest the crowds had reached saturation point in December.

Graham McNally, town centre manager, said: "There is no more capacity for growth. We cannot just have larger crowds coming."

New Malden, Surbiton and Tolworth had their own smaller but equally successful light switch-ons, where Santa had a bit more room to make an appearance in his trusty sleigh.

- The 10 year campaign for a new secondary school for Kingston was boosted when the Government announced it was to hand over £100m to a joint bid with Croydon.

Parents were also told that £8.2m would be given to fund the "bulge" in children which had caused a primary schools place crisis and seen a spate of temporary classrooms spring up at local schools.

Richmond Park MP Susan Kramer and her Tory rival Zac Goldsmith welcomed the news about the secondary school but said the council needed to do a lot of work, including consulting parents, to make sure the school was planned properly.