Eastwood District Council

Reference:GB 3143 E
Dates of Creation:1975 - 1996
Name of Creator:
Language of Material:English
Physical Description:

Scope and Content
This fonds comprises the records of Eastwood District Council, including some records from prior local authorities along with other material from other sources which had been held by the Council.
It contains minutes of the Council, financial records, some legal and environmental records, material re. housing, arts & leisure and licensing registers
Other than the minutes, no series is complete, and there are significant functions of the Council not represented in this archive.
Administrative / Biographical History
Eastwood District Council was established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. It took over part of the functions of the Burgh of Barrhead and of part of those of Renfrewshire County Council.
Eastwood District Council was elected in 1974, but existed only as a shadow authority until 1975 when it assumed its full powers. The Council's main functions were: district courts (under the District Courts (Scotland) Act 1975), building control, burial and cremation, cleansing, conservation areas, development control, environmental health, housing, leisure and recreation, libraries, licensing, local planning, and parks.
The functions of the District Council were delegated through a system of Committees which were manned by members of the elected Council. The Council was led by a Provost (chair) and 11 other elected members.
The Committee structure changed somewhat over the years but the main committees were the Policy and Resources and the Finance and General Purposes Committees.
Several departments of Eastwood District Council were initially based at Paisley (outwith the area of geographic responsibility of the Council) until new Council Headquarters were opened at Eastwood Park in 1980.
The District Council was abolished in 1996 when the provisions of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1994 transferred its functions to the new East Renfrewshire Council.
Arrangement
The committee structure of the Council changed considerably between 1974 and 1996. The records have been arranged in an artificial structure based on the functions of the authority as follows:
1- Council Minutes
2 - Chief Executive
2/1 Publications
2/2 Civic Art, Regalia, etc.
2/3 Staff Transfer Scheme
3 - Finance
3/1 Abstracts of Account
3/2 Annual Reports
3/3 Estimates
3/4 DSO Reports and Accounts
4 - Legal
5 - Planning, Technical and Development
5/1 Renfrew County Council files
5/2 Tree Preservation Orders
5/3 Planning Enquiries
5/4 Planning Appeals
5/5 Environment Publications
5/6 Eastwood Park File
5/7 Planning Files
6 - Housing
7 - Arts, Leisure & Recreation
7/1 Eastwood Festival
7/2 Parks
8 - Licensing
Access Information
There are no restrictions on access to most items, although several contain personal data and have had a closure period imposed. See individual items for details.
Acquisition Information
The following records were transferred to the archives via:
Accession 2005/03 - Local Guides - from ERC Legal Services
Accession 2006/02 - Minutes, Publications and misc. ERC records - ERC Libraries
Accession 2007/07 - Abstracts of Account, etc. - ERC Finance Dept.
Accession 2007/09 - framed photographs, etc. - ERC Admin Services
Accession 2009/01 - signed Minutes - ERC Admin Services
Accession 2009/11 - Corporate Services records - ERC Admin Services
Accession 2010/01 - Dis-aggregation Scheme - ERC Personnel
Accession 2012/02 - Eastwood Park File from ERC Legal Services
Accession 2012/08 - Licensing Registers - ERC Legal Services
Accession 2014/04 - "A School in Eastwood Park" - Paisley Museum
Accession 2014/12 (part) - Visitors' book and Amethyst records - ERC Ctee Services
Accession 2014/13 (part) - Valedictory Dinner programme - private deposit
Accession 2018/01 (part) - ERC Environment Dept records from HQ basement
Note
This description was based on the General International Standard for Archival Description and East Renfrewshire Council's Manual of Listing and Archival Description.
Other Finding Aids
An item level list has been prepared and is searchable on the archives database.
Archivist's Note
Description prepared by Craig Geddes, Council Records Manager. 27/4/11 - 14/12/11
Conditions Governing Use
Contact Records Manager
Appraisal Information
All records which transferred to the archives have been retained, except for the Planning files (already incomplete) many of which were not considered to be worthy of permanent preservation. In addition, there were a number of framed certificates, such as corporate membership of RoSPA, receipts from charities, etc., which were also not retained.
Custodial History
The records were retained by the creating departments of Eastwood District Council before transferring to the relevant departments of the new East Renfrewshire Council, although some records were passed to the libraries at an unknown date prior to 2005. Thereafter the records were transferred to the archives as detailed below.
Accruals
Further accruals from within ERC are likely
Related Material
The records of the County of Renfrew are mostly at Glasgow City Archives; those of the County (First District), the Burgh of Barrhead and East Renfrewshire Council are with East Renfrewshire Archives.