Ourtoonjohnstone.co.uk News, photos and chat from Johnstone Town, Renfrewshire

Renfrewshire is celebrating its first birthday as a Fairtrade county. The campaign to make the whole area an official Fairtrade zone got the go ahead this week in 2009 and to mark the occasion the Renfrewshire Fairtrade Steering Group, who ran the campaign, celebrated with a special Fairtrade birthday cake.

I was handed an old newspaper that shows Johnstone’s war dead as at 24th December 1920. I will work on the image to lift all the text off it so everyone can have a read, but below is a preview.

Take a stroll down Paisley’s High Street and the difficulties facing the town are clear for all to see.
Closed and boarded-up shops, a rash of ‘To Let’ signs and the growing number of discount stores all make for depressing viewing on what was once the jewel in Renfrewshire’s retail crown.

You may not recognise his name or his face but, if you live or work in Paisley, you can be sure that Crawford Russell has had an impact on your life.

WEST of Scotland MSP Annabel Goldie has criticised the council’s spending plans on education.
The Scottish Conservative leader, who lives in Bishopton, claims the council’s budget puts ideology before the best interests of pupils.

A  Paisley shopkeeper has been hit with a record fine for selling cigarettes to a minor.
Shakti Gindha, who owns the Shop Stop on Barscube Terrace, was fined £2,000 for selling a 15-year-old girl a a packet of 10 Mayfair during an undercover operation mounted by Renfrewshire Council.

The safety of hundreds of school pupils will be put at risk as changes are to be made to the secondary school transport scheme, it has been warned.

Thousands of families across Renfrewshire will benefit from a council tax freeze – for the third year in a row.
But council house tenants will be hit hard as their rent is to rise by 4.5 per cent – more than double the current 1.9 per cent rate of inflation – each year until 2015.
And dozens [...]

People in Renfrewshire are being warned about a telephone scam designed to find out their bank details so that criminals can empty their accounts.

A Johnstone mum-to-be admitted attacking a woman with a baseball bat after stepping out of her BMW.
Angela Nash, 25, carried out the shock assault in front of neighbours in Kilbarchan – striking her victim on the head with the weapon.