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

Renfrewshire Council has scooped a double win at this year’s CoSLA Excellence Awards with Social Work’s Family Matters project and the Workforce Plus Public Sector Academy both picking up awards.

The number of people kicked out of their homes after failing to cough up their rent has been slashed.

More than 100 council workers staged a noisy demo outside their Mill Street headquarters yesterday in a row over council budget cuts.

A passenger service across the River Clyde will continue when the Renfrew Ferry is scrapped next month, a council leader has said.

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.

Hundreds of angry parents and pupils took to the streets early yesterday to protest against plans to axe their free school bus.

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.

Renfrewshire’s Council’s representative on Strathclyde Partnership for Transport has condemned as “economically, socially and environmentally unjustified” SPT’s decision to axe the Renfrew Ferry service.

A BUSINESSMAN is hoping to keep the Renfrew Ferry afloat in an ambitious plan revealed to the Paisley Daily Express.