SWINDON may be losing the battle to shed its reputation as “teenage pregnancy capital”.

The latest full-year figures show the number of expectant teenagers, aged 15 to 17, fell to 126 in 2008.

But the first nine months of 2009 appear to show the town heading off-target.

From January to the end of September, there were 105 teenage pregnancies.

If the same rate continued in October, November and December, there will have been 140 such pregnancies for the year – a big step backwards.

Councillor David Renard (Con., Haydon Wick), cabinet member in charge of child welfare, said that the onset of the credit crunch was one likely culprit.

He told the Adver: “We used to be known as the teenage pregnancy capital of the South West.

“We’ve made a lot of progress.”

But when told the town stands to miss its target to lower pregnancies, he said: “If it does turn out that our figures are higher, it will be extremely disappointing.

“But the birth rate does does tend to rise in times of recession, so I suppose in that respect it’s not entirely surprising.

“There might be some upward movement – but let’s hope that’s a blip and not a trend.

“But it is something we need to stay on top of.”

But Fay Howard (Labour, Park), vice-chair of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee where the issue was raised on Tuesday, said: “It’s down to education and advice.

“The concern was always if we stopped having an increase in funding we’d go back, and that’s what’s happened.”

Back in 2006 Swindon’s teen concptions were almost equal to those of Bath, North East Somerset and Bournemouth combined, which had 164 among them - to Swindon’s 157. But by 2008 Swindon had turned the tables and even fell behind tiny Torbay, which racked up 159 teen pregnancies total.

The full numbers for 2009 will be published later this year.