“Well, you know, we have a prestige here”, a woman tells me matter-of-factly. We are standing on Fenwick Road in Giffnock, exactly one kilometre across the border. As this is a local authority border, it’s invisible to the naked eye. But to the residents of East Ren it's as hard as Checkpoint Charlie.
This is because Giffnock, I keep hearing, is a place with a certain reputation to uphold whereas Glasgow is… Well, it would be rude to utter aloud. Having made the long trek from the city in question (all of 15 minutes on a ScotRail), I intend to get to the bottom of exactly what this means.
The woman I’m currently talking to is standing outside Giffnock station with her husband, who nods in agreement. She's dressed elegantly, a Remembrance poppy adorning her black duffel jacket.
“And that prestige,” she continues, her lip curling slightly, suggesting my questions are beginning to wear thin, “well, that prestige is what keeps our house prices buoyant, our schools buoyant.”
“Look at Paisley, look at Alexandria. It’s a lot nicer here. We’d like it to stay that way,” she finishes. After our conversation, she tells me she's actually catching the train into Glasgow. The irony, seemingly, is lost on her.
I'm in East Renfrewshire to find out how the other half live. Kidding (sort of). In actuality, I'm here because of a bold Scottish Government proposal that could see Scotland's 32 local authorities condensed into somewhere between six and 10 larger regional councils.
Should the plans go ahead, East Renfrewshire could find itself sharing an authority with its less prestigious neighbour, Glasgow.
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