Council and elections

We provide a range of newsletters to help you keep up to date with what the council is doing. 

You can choose which newsletters you would like to sign up for.  

After signing up, you'll receive regular emails with news, updates and service information. Each newsletter has its own email schedule. 

Your data will be processed in line with our privacy policy. 

What newsletters you can subscribe to 

You can sign up to receive any of these newsletters by email:  

Council news 

Get news, events, council service updates and alerts every 2 weeks.

Sign up to council news

Bin collection email reminders

You can subscribe for bin collection email reminders. They are sent a day before each collection.

Sign up to bin collection email reminders

Schools and nurseries news

Get monthly news, events, updates and alerts about schools, nurseries and education in your area.

Sign up to schools and nurseries news

What's On (upcoming events)

Get updates on large town centre events in Paisley and Renfrewshire. We send What's On updates throughout the year.

Sign up to event updates

Dargavel community updates 

You’ll get news, events, information and alerts about Dargavel education and school capacity whenever updates are available.

Sign up to Dargavel community updates

AMIDS South updates

Sign up to AMIDS South updates 

You'll receive regular updates on the AMIDS South project. We'll also send you information on the works taking place on Renfrew Road, upcoming public events, and additional important updates when available.

OneRen news

You'll receive emails featuring news and updates about all OneRen activities including fitness, libraries, sport, and cultural events.

Sign up to OneRen news

How to unsubscribe 

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe option at the bottom of our emails. 

What we’re doing

We’re working on a new council website. Over time, this will replace the old website. 

We’re moving various sections to the new website as we go. You’ll see a mix of old and new style pages while we complete this work. 

Here are the sections we’ve already completed: 

• bins and recycling
• benefits and money
• council tax
• council housing. 

By the end of 2026, all sections should be on the new website, so you will not see the old style of pages anymore. 

Why we’re doing it 

The council website is where most people in Renfrewshire access the council’s services and information. Each year, 2.1 million devices visit the website, and they view our pages over 6 million times. 

We’re creating a new website because the current one is struggling to meet people's needs. For example:

• It can be hard to find the right information, especially if you do not know the name of the service you need.
• The pages are not always written in plain language, which can make them confusing or hard to understand.
• It does not work well for everyone, especially people using screen readers or mobile phones.
• The design is out of date, which makes it harder to use and less trustworthy.

We want to make sure that the services and information on the website are: 

• easy to find
• clear
• accessible. 

This means you’ll be able to get what you need as quickly and easily as possible, whether you’re applying for a garden waste permit, registering your child for school, or looking for information about your local councillor. 

How you can get involved 

Hundreds of people in Renfrewshire have already helped us test the new website and shared their feedback.

You can help too. At the bottom of each page, tell us if the page was helpful. If it wasn’t, let us know why. Your feedback helps us improve.

Relevant information and policies about this website

Copyright, content re-use and branding

Re-using content

Unless we say otherwise, you can re-use text content from the main website – Renfrewshire.gov.uk – under the Open Government Licence (OGL) v3.0. This does not apply to content on sub-domains such as myaccount.renfrewshire.gov.uk.

The OGL encourages the use and re-use of information under this licence with a few conditions, including:

• acknowledging the source, for example “Source: Renfrewshire Council, [title of page], [date], licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0”
• linking to the licence
• clearly showing if you’ve made any changes to the content.

If you intend to use information, please make sure you’re using the latest version of any guidance or information by checking Renfrewshire.gov.uk directly.

Copyright exceptions

Some content on the website needs permission the Council or is not owned by the Council. The licence does not apply to:

• Images or logos where someone else owns the copyright
• Any content where it says, “All rights reserved” or something similar
• Personal data or anything that could identify an individual
• Content that’s clearly marked as not covered by the OGL.

Use of the Renfrewshire Council logos and artwork

Use of the logo(s) implies that Renfrewshire Council has produced, approved, or endorsed the content. To protect the integrity of our communications, we do not allow our logos to be used on other websites, documents or promotional materials unless:

• we have worked in partnership to produce the content, and
• we have given explicit permission in writing.

To request permission, please contact us and include:

• your name and organisation
• the material you want to use the logo on
• the purpose of the request.

Using third-party images

If you want to re-use an image:

• check the page carefully – if it is not clear who owns it, you should assume it is not covered by the OGL
• you’ll need to ask the copyright owner for permission if the image is not licensed for re-use.

Maps and ordnance Survey data

The Ordnance Survey (OS) mapping is provided by Renfrewshire Council under licence from the Ordnance Survey to fulfil its public function to publicise local public services. 

When using the Ordnance Survey mapping, you are granted a non-exclusive, royalty free, revocable licence solely to view the licensed data for non-commercial purposes for the period during which Renfrewshire Council makes it available. 

You are not permitted to copy, sub-license, distribute, sell or otherwise make available the licensed data to third parties in any form. Third party rights to enforce the terms of this licence shall be reserved to OS.

Disclaimer

We do our best to keep information up to date and accurate, but we cannot guarantee it will always be:

• current
• complete
• accurate
• secure
• free from bugs or viruses.

Renfrewshire Council assumes no responsibility for any loss, damage or inconvenience caused as a result of any inaccuracy or error within these pages.

Renfrewshire.gov.uk availability

We try to keep Renfrewshire.gov.uk available at all times, but we can’t guarantee uninterrupted access.

We may take the site offline at any time without notice.

This page explains the terms of use for Renfrewshire.gov.uk. 

You must use this website lawfully. This means you must not:

• break any laws while using it
• do anything that restricts or interferes with other people’s use of the site.

We may update or remove content on the website at any time, without giving notice.

We use social media to share news, updates and service information. We also use it to listen to your views. These are public platforms and we aim to keep them respectful, inclusive and helpful.

Messages to our social media accounts are not monitored. If you have an emergency and need assistance, contact our services using the emergency contact numbers listed on our website.

Where you can find us

We currently use:

• Facebook
• Bluesky
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• WhatsApp
• YouTube.

Each platform has its own rules, which we follow. We also have house rules to help you engage with us in a safe and respectful way.

What our House rules are

We want our social media pages to be fair, safe and welcoming. We care about getting things right and we want to help and work with you to improve our services and create a better Renfrewshire for everyone.

We understand you may be frustrated or upset when you contact us. Please still treat our staff and other users with respect. We will not tolerate abusive, discriminatory or harmful behaviour towards our staff or other users. 

Please:

• Be civil, tasteful and relevant
• Only post what you’re happy to share publicly
• Respect different views
• Let our staff help – they are doing their best
• Don't swear or use offensive language
• Don't post anything unlawful, libelous, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially offensive
• Don't incite, condone or encourage anything that could result in a criminal offence, civil liability or breaches any laws regarding competition
• Don't post inappropriate images or threatening, abusive, harassing, blackmailing or bullying messages online
• Don't post misinformed or misleading information, comments, replies or links
• Don't be rude and/or aggressive to members of our team, they are doing everything they can to help you
• Don't post links or direct others to sites containing viruses, corrupted files or anything that could damage or interfere with computer hardware or software, or to material which is offensive, or which may breach the terms of use of the relevant social media account
• Don't post content copied from elsewhere which you don't own the copyright for
• Don't post the same message, or very similar messages, more than once, also called "spamming"
• Don't publicise your, or anyone else's, personal information, such as contact details
• Don't advertise products or businesses
• Don't impersonate someone else.

If you don’t follow these house rules, we reserve the right to:

• remove any content that breaks these rules
• block users who repeatedly or seriously breach them
• report unlawful posts to the relevant authorities.

Endorsements and third-party content

• If we ‘like’ or ‘follow’ other accounts, it doesn’t mean we endorse them.
• Views expressed by others on our pages do not represent Renfrewshire Council.
• We are not responsible for content linked to or shared by others.

AI use on social media

We do not use artificial intelligence to create or respond to social media content. Everything we post is written by a member of our team. When you contact us, you’re speaking to a real person.

When we monitor and respond

The messages to our social media accounts are not monitored. If you message us on social media, you may receive an automatic reply.

During emergencies or significant disruptions, we may post updates outside of normal hours.

Formal complaints

We understand that people may be upset or frustrated when they contact us. 

Social media is not the place to raise official complaints.

If you want to make a formal complaint, use our complaints process.

Keeping information up to date

We aim to share accurate and timely information, but we cannot guarantee that all content on our social media pages will always be complete or up to date. For the most reliable information, check our website.

What we publish

For each councillor, we publish:

• their name
• their main role (like committee convener or opposition leader)
• salary
• car and van travel (we show what the councillor claimed and what the council paid directly)
• other travel (split the same way – claimed by the councillor or paid directly by the council)
• costs for meals and places to stay
• training and conference costs
• phone and IT costs (excluding equipment owned by the council)
• any other allowances (for example, civic duties or staying with friends during travel)
• total expenses
• total salary and expenses.

We clearly label where a cost was:

• reimbursed (money paid back to the councillor)
• paid directly by the council.

When we publish

We publish this information every year by 1 June, covering the previous financial year (April to March).

See previous records of:

• councillors’ salaries, allowances and expenses 2023 to 2024
• councillors’ salaries, allowances and expenses 2022 to 2023
• councillors’ salaries, allowances and expenses 2021 to 2023
• councillors’ salaries, allowances and expenses 2020 to 2021

See previous records of: 

• councillors’ training 2023 to 2024
• councillors’ training 2022 to 2023
• councillors’ training 2021 to 2022
• councillors’ training 2020 to 2021

We publish information every year about what we pay each councillor and what expenses they’ve claimed. This includes money spent on things like travel and training.

We do this to make sure the information is open and easy for you to find. It also meets legal requirements set by the Scottish Government.

What personal information is

Personal information is anything that identifies and relates to you.

It can include information that can be used with other information to identify you. 

For example, this could be your:

• name
• address
• contact details
• bank details
• personal and family history
• identification numbers
• online identifiers.

Special category information

Some personal information is more sensitive and needs more protection.

This is often very personal to you such as information about your:

• racial or ethnic background
• genetic or biometric data
• health
• political opinions
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• sex life
• sexual orientation
• trade union membership.

We get most of the personal information we use from you and from what we learn about you through your interactions with us. 

We may also get some information about you from:

• the technology you use to access our services
• information you make public on social media
• family members
• your legal representative
• referees
• employers
• information from publicly available sources
• health and education providers
• commissioned partners
• regulatory bodies
• police and other local authorities.

Why we need your personal information

We may need to use your personal information to:

• deliver services and support to you
• manage those services we provide to you
• train and manage the employment of our workers
• help investigate any worries or complaints you have about our services
• keep track of spending on services
• check the quality of services
• help with research and planning of current and new services
• protect public funds and prevent and detect crime and fraud.

There are circumstances when you are required by law or contract to provide personal information.

How we look after your information

When we ask you for personal information, we will:

• make sure you know why we need it
• ask only for what we need
• protect your personal information and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn't
• take proportionate precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or destruction of your personal information
• let you know if we share it with any other organisations to give you better public services
• make sure we don't keep it longer than necessary, and
• not make your personal information available for commercial use without your permission.

In return, we ask you to:

• give us accurate information, and
• tell us as soon as possible if there are any changes, such as a new address.

This helps us to keep your information reliable and up to date.

Consent

We will not ask for consent in cases where we need to process your information to carry out our public functions. 

If we have asked for your consent to process your information, you have the right to withdraw this, in whole or in part, at any time. We will explain any consequences of this to you, including any impact on the service we are delivering.

Who we share your personal information with

Sometimes we have a legal duty to provide personal information to other organisations.

For example, we share certain data with other public bodies such as Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and will do so where the law requires this. 

We also generally comply with requests for specific information from other regulatory and law enforcement bodies where this is necessary and proportionate.

Information is also used by the council to improve the services we deliver to you. 

Profiling and automatic decision making

The council does not use profiling or automated decision-making processes. Some processes are semi-automated such as anti-fraud data matching, but a human decision maker will always be involved before any decision is reached in relation to you.

Transfer of personal information outside the UK or European Economic Area

We will not transfer personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA) unless this cannot be avoided.

We’ll only transfer data outside the UK and the EEA when we are satisfied that the party which will handle the data and the country it is processing it in will provide adequate safeguards for personal privacy. 

On the occasions when we do transfer your information outside the UK or the European Economic Area, we'll inform you. 

How long we keep your personal information

We'll only keep your information as long as we need to.

Full details of how long the council usually retains your information can be found in the council's Retention and Disposal Schedule.

However, there may be circumstances where we may need to keep your information for longer. Once we no longer need to keep your information, it will be securely destroyed.

Your rights in relation to your personal information

You have a number of rights in relation to the personal information we collect and use about you.

Further information about these rights can be found on the Information Commissioner's individual rights page.

You have the following rights:

• the right to be informed about how your information will be used.
• the right of access to your personal information.
• the right to rectification, which is the right to require the council to correct any mistakes.
• the right to request the erasure of any personal information held by the council where the council no longer has legal reason to hold the information.
• the right to request that your information is only processed in certain ways.
• the right to data portability.

The right to object to the council processing your personal information.

These are not absolute rights are there may be circumstances where the council is legally obliged to process your information in a particular way.

For example, your details will be accessed by the council staff who need this to provide you with a service and if the service is provided by an external agency, that agency. We are also legally obliged to protect public funds, so details will be checked internally for fraud prevention and verification purposes and may be shared with other public bodies for the same purpose.

Right to be informed

Our Data Protection Officer, Allison Black, monitors Renfrewshire Council's compliance with the law and can deal with any concerns you have about how we handle personal data.

You have the right to ask more details on:

• what information we hold about you and how to ask us to correct any mistakes
• agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information
• circumstances where we can pass on your information without telling you, for example, to prevent and detect crime or produce anonymised statistics
• our instructions to staff on how to collect, use and delete your personal information and
• how we check information we hold is accurate and up to date.

You can exercise any of these rights by contacting us:

• 0300 300 0300
• dataprotection@renfrewshire.gov.uk 

Right to complain

When we ask you for information, we will abide by all relevant legislation, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

However, if you are unhappy with the way we process your personal data you have the right to complain. 

Any complaints regarding your data should be addressed to the Data Protection Officer, Allison Black on dataprotection@renfrewshire.gov.uk.

If the matter is not resolved, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office, who can also provide independent data protection advice. The address and contact details for the Information Commissioner's Officer are:

• 45 Melville Street
  Edinburgh
  EH3 7HL
• telephone: 0303 123 1115
• email: scotland@ico.org.uk

This privacy policy explains how Renfrewshire Council (referred to in this policy as ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘the council’) uses information about you and how we look after it. We need to process personal information about you so that we can provide better services for you. 

What cookies are

Renfrewshire.gov.uk uses cookies. 

Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website.

They perform important functions such as remembering preferences and help us to measure the performance of the website so that we can continue to improve it. 

Our cookies are not used to identify you personally. They’re just here to make the site work better for you. You can manage and/or delete these files as you wish. 

We will not use cookies on this website that collect information about what other websites you visit (often referred to as privacy intrusive cookies). 

What types of cookies we use

This website uses the following cookie

Strictly necessary cookies

These are required cookies that this website cannot function without.

Cookie consent

• This cookie is set to remember the user's preferences about cookies
• Expiry for CookieControl : 3 months.

Session cookies for Drupal Content Management System users

• These cookie is only set for users that log into the Drupal Content Management system that allows us to manage this website
• Expiry for SSESS*: 3 months
• Expiry for Drupal.visitor.autologout_login: 1 year.

Spam protection

• This cookie is used for Cloudflare spam protection
• Expiry for cf_clearance: 14 days.

Dismissing notifications

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• Expiry for hide-notification-token: 30 days.

Analytical cookies

We use Analytics cookies to help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and reporting information anonymously. We use statistics cookies to analyse anonymised usage patterns.

Google analytics

We use Google Analytics Cookies to compile visitor statistics such as how many people have visited our website, what type of technology they are using (e.g. Mac or Windows which helps to identify when our site isn't working as it should for specific technologies), how long they spend on the site, what page they look at etc. This helps us to continuously improve our website. These cookies also tell us, on an anonymous basis, how people reached this site (e.g. from a search engine) and whether they have been here before.

List of cookies: _ga, _gid

You can opt-out of having your anonymised browsing history within our website recorded by analytics cookies. You can learn more about their privacy policy and how to opt-out of their analytics cookies by clicking on following links:

• Google Analytics Privacy Policy
• Opt-out of Google Analytics cookies

How to manage cookies 

You can prevent the downloading of cookies on your device, block their use or receive notification that cookies are being downloaded by changing the settings on your web browser. However, please be aware that blocking or restricting the use of cookies may prevent you from benefiting from some of our website’s features.  

You can manage your analytical and marketing cookie settings for Renfrewshire.gov.uk directly on this website.

Update Cookie Settings

You can also manage cookies on popular browsers: 

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari.

Further guidance on the use of personal information, and on cookies and similar technologies, can be found at the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and allaboutcookies.org.

This cookie policy explains how Renfrewshire Council (referred to in this policy as ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘the Council’) collects and stores information about how you use the Renfrewshire.gov.uk website.