Renfrewshire

The name Renfrewshire derives from being the shire (the area controlled by a sheriff) administered from the royal burgh of Renfrew. The name Renfrew has been attested since the Roman occupation of Britain. The name is believed to originate from Common Brittonic/Cumbric, from ren, as in Scottish Gaelic: rinn, or as in Welsh: rhyn (a point or cape of land) and from frew, as in Welsh: fraw, or ffrau (flow of water). This suggests a point of land near the flow of water, such as at the confluence of the Cart and Clyde rivers.[1]

The historic county of Renfrewshire was abolished for local government purposes in 1975. The county was divided to become three of the nineteen districts in the Strathclyde region, being Eastwood, Inverclyde, and Renfrew.[2]

In the debates leading to the local government reforms of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, the government initially proposed replacing these three districts with two council areas: "West Renfrewshire", covering Inverclyde district and the western parts of Renfrew district (including Paisley, Johnstone, and Renfrew), and "East Renfrewshire", covering Eastwood district and the eastern parts of Renfrew district (including Barrhead, Neilston and Ralston). The proposals were criticised, with West Renfrewshire having three times the population of East Renfrewshire; the accusation was made in parliament that the proposed changes constituted gerrymandering, with East Renfrewshire only being kept separate because it had more Conservative voters.[3]

The proposals were not supported locally, with Inverclyde successfully campaigning to be allowed to form its own council area, and the Ralston area voting in a referendum not to be transferred to East Renfrewshire.[4] When the government conceded to allow Inverclyde to continue as a separate authority, the name West Renfrewshire was dropped. The central district was instead named Renfrewshire, despite only covering the central part of the historic county of that name. The new Renfrewshire covered the former Renfrew district except for the Barrhead electoral division (which also included Neilston) which went instead to East Renfrewshire. The new council areas came into effect on 1 April 1996.[5]

The Braehead shopping centre was built in 1999 straddling the boundary between Renfrewshire and Glasgow, leading to a dispute between the two councils. It was agreed that the boundary should be changed to place the whole centre in one council area, but both authorities wanted it. In 2002, the Local Government Boundary Commission eventually redrew the boundary to include all of the centre in Renfrewshire.[6][7]

Paisley

Renfrew

Johnstone

Erskine

Linwood

Bishopton

Houston

Elderslie

Bridge of Weir

Kilbarchan

West Dunbartonshire

Glasg.

East Renfrewshire

North Ayrshire

Inverclyde

The largest settlements in Renfrewshire.

Largest settlements by population:

The area is divided into 25 community council areas, 20 of which have community councils as at 2023 (being those with asterisks in the list below):[9]

Paisley Abbey

Renfrewshire contains several places of interest. In the west of Renfrewshire, Castle Semple Loch at Lochwinnoch and the wider Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park are natural areas of interest, as is the Gleniffer Braes country park in the south.

Paisley contains several historic buildings and notable sites, including Paisley Abbey, Paisley Museum and Coats Observatory, Paisley Town Hall, Coats Memorial Church, Sma' Shot Cottages and St Mirren Park (home of St Mirren F.C.). Outside of Paisley, Elderslie, the claimed birthplace of Scottish knight William Wallace, contains a monument in his honour, while the Weaver's Cottage at Kilbarchan is in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. The town of Johnstone is notable for Johnstone Castle, Johnstone High Parish Church and for containing a museum within a supermarket.

The Braehead Arena in Renfrewshire close to the boundary with Glasgow is home to leading professional basketball team, the Scottish Rocks, who compete in the British Basketball League. The arena was also host to the 2000 Ford World Curling Championships.

Renfrewshire
Leadership
Provost	Lorraine Cameron, SNP since 18 May 2017
Leader	Iain Nicolson, SNP since 18 May 2017[10]
Chief Executive	Alan Russell since November 2021[11]
Structure
Seats	43 councillors
SNP	21 / 43
Labour	13 / 43
Conservative	5 / 43
Lib Dem	1 / 43
Independent	3 / 43
Elections
Voting system	Single transferable vote
Last election	6 May 2022
Next election	6 May 2027
Meeting place
Renfrewshire House, Cotton Street, Paisley, PA1 1AN
Website
www.renfrewshire.gov.uk

Renfrewshire Council is the elected local authority for Renfrewshire. Its consists of 43 directly elected councillors who elect from among their number a provost to serve as the council's convener and ceremonial head and a leader of the council who is typically the head of the largest political group. The council meets collectively as a full council and carries out a number of functions. Its Scheme of Delegated Functions sets out where the council has agreed to allow powers to be exercised by a committee (referred to as a "board" in Renfrewshire Council), a sub-committee, an officer of the council or a joint committee with one or more other councils. The council continues to reserve a number of functions that can only be carried out by the council acting as a whole. The council's staff is headed by a chief executive who is responsible to the elected council.[12]

Renfrewshire Council acts as the lead authority for Scotland Excel, a collaborative procurement vehicle established in 2008 to support the local authorities of Scotland.[13]

Since 2007 elections have been held every five years under the single transferable vote system, introduced by the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004. Election results since 1995 have been as follows:[14]

Electoral wards

Main article: Wards of Renfrewshire

Map of Renfrewshire's 12 wards, using 2017 boundaries

For the purposes of elections to Renfrewshire Council, the Renfrewshire area is divided geographically into a number of wards which then elect either three or four councillors each by the single transferable vote system.[26] The electoral system of local councils in Scotland is governed by the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, which first introduced proportional representation to councils in Scotland.

These electoral wards, following a 2017 review and first used in the 2017 Renfrewshire Council election are as follows:[27][28]

Ward number	Ward Name	Location	Seats	Population (2020)
1	Renfrew North and Braehead		4	17,827
2	Renfrew South and Gallowhill		3	12,232
3	Paisley Northeast and Ralston		3	12,810
4	Paisley Northwest		4	17,018
5	Paisley East and Central		3	12,218
6	Paisley Southeast		3	12,925
7	Paisley Southwest		4	16,505
8	Johnstone South and Elderslie		4	15,860
9	Johnstone North, Kilbarchan, Howwood and Lochwinnoch		4	14,740
10	Houston, Crosslee and Linwood		4	19,152
11	Bishopton, Bridge of Weir and Langbank		3	10,040
12	Erskine and Inchinnan		4	18,063

Renfrewshire contains the University of the West of Scotland, a new university that was granted university status in 1992 as the University of Paisley. Prior to this, the Paisley Technical College and School of Art was a Central Institution or polytechnic. In 2007 the university merged with Bell College, a further education college in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire and the UWS name was adopted. The university today has sites across the west of Scotland, notably also in Ayr and a joint campus in Dumfries; the main campus remains in Paisley.

Paisley Grammar School

Further education is provided by Paisley Campus of West College Scotland in Paisley, which caters to around 20,000 students. The college also has sites in Inverclyde and West Dumbartonshire.[29]

Renfrewshire contains eleven state secondary schools: Castlehead High School, Gleniffer High School, Gryffe High School, Johnstone High School, Linwood High School, Paisley Grammar School, Park Mains High School, Renfrew High School, St Andrew's Academy, St Benedict's High School, and Trinity High School. It also has 51 primary schools and three schools for children with additional support needs.

Glasgow International Airport

Renfrewshire is home to Scotland's second busiest airport, Glasgow International Airport, at Abbotsinch between Paisley and Renfrew. The presence of the airport and the proximity to Glasgow means that Renfrewshire supports one of the busiest transport infrastructures in Scotland.

The airport is served by the M8 motorway, which terminates in the area, just east of Langbank, and is a major artery between northwest and southwest Scotland, via the Erskine Bridge.

Developments to ease traffic flow have included a lifting of tolls on the Erskine Bridge, original plans to extend the rail network to connect to the airport have been cancelled and the latest suggestion in 2019 is a metro line connecting Paisley to the airport then on to Glasgow via Braehead. Also the M74 extension was completed to handle traffic from Renfrewshire heading south, diverting it away from Glasgow city centre.[30] Renfrewshire also has bus links provided by FirstGroup, McGill's Bus Services and other smaller operators.

• Renfrewshire at Curlie
• Renfrewshire Events Guide
• Paisley Daily Express local daily newspaper
• The Gazette Newspaper weekly
• Renfrewshire24.co.uk, online only news and events website