Paisley in The Herald

...........The objectives are to encourage town centres to become the community hubs they once were. However, for many, the horse may already have bolted.
Paisley, once one of Scotland's busiest and wealthiest towns, is now a textbook example of the decline.
The crumbling grandeur of the Victorian architecture is obscured by countless signs declaring "Lease For Sale" and "To Let, Generous Incentives Available".

A generation ago, it would have been unthinkable that shops could lie vacant for years on the main street in a town the size of Paisley. Now, empty units sit cheek-by-jowl with charity shops........

....Since the massive shopping mall opened on the outskirts of Renfrew in 1999, local traders have witnessed a steady, unrelenting decline. The opening of the Silverburn centre in nearby Pollok, home to the largest supermarket in the country, will only worsen the situation....................

The full Herald article can be read here

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/67005.html

Senior officials from Paisley University and Bell College in Hamilton are currently holding talks about merging the two institutions and creating a new university for 18,000 students.
Called the University of the West of Scotland, the new institution, planned for next year, will operate from four campuses located at Paisley, Hamilton, Ayr, and Dumfries.
The idea is to create a university which is large enough to tackle the chronic problems of under-representation in higher education in the west of Scotland.
The merger of the two schools of health and nursing currently run separately by Bell and Paisley would also make the new university the biggest provider of nurses and midwives in Scotland............However, the fact the town of Paisley will no longer have a university named after it has caused concern among local politicians.

MP Douglas Alexander, Scottish Secretary, and MSP Hugh Henry, the executive's Deputy Justice Minister, have launched a petition to keep the university's existing name.
"Paisley is Scotland's largest town and has given the university its original existence and identity. For the university to turn its back on Paisley would be an act of betrayal," said Mr Alexander.

Paisley University was founded in 1897 as Paisley College of Technology.

For the full Herald Article click here

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/67054.html

What have the two articles got in common? The bottom line is, it's business that makes the University based in Paisley to diversify. They are faced with a declining market and ever increasing pressure to make money and money is precisely what the traders in the town have not been making for a good few years, even before Braehead.

Paisley has been in decline for over 20 years. The Council has done nothing to arrest this reversal of fortune. You did not need to be an astrologer to foresee that was going to happen. You could say that's why we have a planning department, to plan for the future needs of the town. For the departments in the council to do their jobs they need a clear line of direction.

Forget the posturing that the MSP/MP's have been indulging in. A petition? Don't make me laugh. A last desperate effort to place the blame somewhere else

Forget them, but what direction has the bunch of losers known as our councillors been indicating all these years? The only direction these nohopers have been indicating has been away from them.

It's no our fault, its Braehead, it's no our fault that the County Buildings in County Square were demolished, the river Cart paved over and a monstrosity built in its place, it's no our fault that the BAA were not told to have Paisley in the title of our Airport.

IT WAS A BIG BOY THAT DONE IT AND THEN HE RAN AWAY!!! NO FECKIN WAY. OUR COUNCIL IS RESPONSIBLE. Or are they???

The blame for the way the town is today falls squarely on us, the Voters of the town. Like sheep we trot along to the polling stations (or more increasingly, stay away, which is even worse) to put our hoof prints were we have been told. What we fail to realise time and time again, that those half wit Councillors, MSP,s and MPs are our employees, we elect them, they should do what we say, but we are content to let them ruin our beautiful town without saying a word.

People of Paisley, I tell you, we must get up, off our apathetic arses and do something about it. Organise yourselves and sieze control, don't put up with lame, half arsed excuses, the destiny of the people of Paisley is in your hands. If you personally were drowning you would clutch at any means to escape your predicament.

What? Are you waiting for a new elected bunch in next years elections to save your arse? Forget it.

You have the power, use it.