July 2010 Newsletter

Council Cuts

Renfrewshire Council have announced 700 posts could go in next 9 months, on top of 300 posts shed this year. 700 jobs is 10% of the Council’s non-teaching workforce by March 2011. All this when many bosses received the final part of 22% pay hike over two years.

Education

Education has borne the brunt of local cutbacks. Renfrewshire has axed more teachers, 245, than any other Council in Scotland – taking account of its size. Schools have been closed, school buses axed and remaining nurseries have been closed or downgraded. For full details read here.

RAH Car Parking Plan – Update

You may remember the campaign achieved initial success when the Health Board agreed to delaying the planned June implementation, stating this would allow for “further engagement and discussion with staff and their representatives.”

Click here for the current response from the Chief Executive Robert Calderwood. It shows little of the flexibility I would have hoped for to reassess the situation at the RAH.

Be assured I continue to press the case for a full re-think from the first principles – and I continue to raise questions about the Health Boards’ parking policies in Parliament.

Town Centre

Some of you will recall I ran a campaign last summer to win monies for Paisley from the national Town Centre Regeneration Fund for which I had long campaigned.

Paisley won £1.8m which is now being used to begin the redevelopment of the Arnotts site.   I recently met both the Director of Planning and the Police Chief in Mill Street to keep the pressure on for further improvements.

The Paisley Vision Board of local retailers want to attract more high quality ‘outlet stores’ like those at McArthur Glen in Livingstone, and have hired expert help to market Paisley to such stores. In the coming weeks temporary frontages will be used to entice new retailers. This is encouraging evidence that Paisley’s entrepreneurial spirit has not been extinguished. Click here for more details and see the Herald article this week.

At the Arnotts Site remodelling has begun with demolition, site clearance and environmental improvements underway including improving the existing car park area and the opening up of pedestrian routes though from Lawn Street to Smithhill Street. The Listed buildings will be protected and are not involved in the demolition works. But full site regeneration will take time. Overall market conditions for new retail and residential development are still challenging but the initial works being funded jointly by Park Lane and the Council will position the site to attract new investment.

More generally, over £7.5m was committed in 2007 to be spent 5 years on Paisley the town centre regeneration. Since 2007 nothing has been added to this pot – but nor has it been cut – so slowly we are seeing improvements: The Abercorn Bridge; Central Way; Renfrewshire House and the Arnotts site. Encouragingly Network Rail have agreed to upgrade Gilmour Street Station.

One real blot on the landscape is the Littlewoods site. The site’s owners are still getting a rent from Littlewoods so they have little incentive to find a new occupier.

I am urging support for new powers for  Councils to pursue landowners who own buildings in High Streets but make no effort to find new tenants because they continue to pick up rent through long leases. Councils need better powers to force landlords to ensure the shops are occupied or trading. For example if landlords knew they would have a rates penalty if they left a viable shop empty for a prolonged period, we might get faster re-leasing.

Lottery Fund monies are also now helping improve the area around Causeyside Street & Orchard Street and the Old Fire Station

In the West End progress is slower. I continue to urge the Council to improve the fabric of the buildings and refurbish Well Street – perhaps in partnership with established local housing associations.

Tackling underage drinking

Paul Main, Police Commander at Mill Street, tells me there is finally a mood for tougher action on underage drinking. The Inverclyde Licensing board has recently adopted a ‘first strike’ policy which sees shops caught selling to someone underage, having its licence suspended so hitting the shop’s bottom line by thousands of pounds. Click here for more details.

In Renfrewshire the Licensing Board has not yet adopted the Inverclyde approach. I am lobbying strongly for them to do so. I am urging a ‘first strike’ policy here in Renfrewshire and I hope it will happen here to.