Strathclyde

Strathclyde (Srath Chluaidh in Gaelic, meaning "valley of the River Clyde", ) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994. The Strathclyde region had 19 districts.

The area was on the west coast of Scotland and stretched from the Highlands in the north to the Southern Uplands in the south. As a local government region, its population, in excess of 2.5 million, was the largest of the regions. The Region was responsible for education (from pre-school through to colleges); social work; police; fire; sewage; strategic planning; roads; transport - and, therefore, employed almost 100,000 public servants (almost half were teachers, lecturers and others in the education service)

The regional administrative headquarters was in the largest city, the City of Glasgow and politics were by and large dominated by the Labour Party. The first regional council convener was the Rev Geoff Shaw, who died in 1978. It was largely due to his leadership that the Region forged its innovative strategy on multiple deprivation - which remained its central commitment to the end of the Region's life through "Social Strategy for the Eighties" (1982) and "SS for the 90s". A paper describing this period can be found in "key papers" at

The area of the region is still in use as a police force area, covered by Strathclyde Police, a fire service area, covered by Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service, and a transport area, covered by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.