A Renfrewshire councillor has welcomed Renfrewshire Council’s budget commitment to deliver improved Christmas lighting and a new light switch-on events in Linwood and Erskine.
Alongside events such as the Paisley Food and Drink Festival, Renfrew Gala Day and the Paisley Halloween Festival the events team at Renfrewshire Council has successfully delivered Christmas events in the towns of Johnstone, Paisley and Renfrew for years.
However, Linwood and Erskine have not had official events during the festive period.
Renfrewshire Council put aside £150,000 in this year’s budget for their own events team to develop and deliver a new calendar of cultural events for the five town centres in Renfrewshire.
In addition, the Council will also invest £50,000 regularly to support the infrastructure required to deliver improved festive lighting in Linwood and Erskine, with a further £50,000 to upgrade the festive lighting infrastructure across each of Renfrewshire’s town centres.
Cllr Robert Innes, SNP Councillor for Houston, Crosslee and Linwood, said: “I welcome this additional funding to support a new Christmas event and improvements to festive lighting for the towns of Linwood and Erskine.
“The council events team along with community volunteers put on a fantastic spectacle each year in Renfrew, Johnstone and Paisley. The hope is that Linwood and Erskine can now share in this along with the other Renfrewshire towns.”
“I welcome the ‘five town approach’ here with this investment. In my opinion, there are times that the ever-growing towns of Erskine and Linwood do not perhaps get the same attention as the other towns and this approach with the Christmas event and investment in Christmas lights should extend across all of our services in Renfrewshire.”
Cllr Innes added: “Events like this are so important to allow communities to come together and instil a real sense of community spirit, especially at Christmas.
“I am glad that along with the other towns in Renfrewshire, Linwood and Erskine’s residents, community groups, schools and nurseries will be able to work with council officers to put on our own event for the towns.”
Headline photo: Christmas tree in Paisley back in 2023