Clarkston

During the 21st century there have been far fewer developments, including Aidan’s Brae off Mearns Road and Seres Drive on the old site of Williamwood High School. The replacement school is situated on the southern edge of the town towards Waterfoot, some distance from the Williamwood residential area, as is the most recent version of Williamwood House (built 1930, now a care home) on the northern side of the Williamwood Golf Course. Along with the school and Williamwood railway station, the club (founded in 1906) maintains the historic name and gives it a greater prominence outwith the town than would otherwise be expected of what is nowadays merely a small sector of Clarkston between Mearns Road, two railway lines and another golf club (Cathcart Castle). Clarkston is in East Renfrewshire, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland for local government purposes. East Renfrewshire Council, the unitary local council, is based in neighbouring Giffnock and is the body responsible for local governance. For local electoral purposes, Clarkston was formerly a ward electing a single councillor to East Renfrewshire Council, but is now grouped with Busby and Eaglesham as a larger multi-member ward electing three councillors. Clarkston is one of East Renfrewshire’s designated community council areas, but following the dissolution of the previous community council in 2015 there were insufficient nominations for it to be re-established at that time. The Scottish Parliament is responsible for devolved matters such as education, health and justice, while reserved matters are dealt with by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Clarkston forms part of the county constituency of East Renfrewshire, electing one member of parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Kirsten Oswald of the SNP was elected as MP for East Renfrewshire in the 2015 General Election. Before the constituency’s creation in 2005, Clarkston lay in the Eastwood Constituency. For the purposes of the Scottish Parliament, Clarkston forms part of the Eastwood constituency, which is represented by Jackson Carlaw MSP, of the Conservative party.