WRC, who work out of a unit in Johnstone’s Floors Street, are in the process of trying to swap their current home for a new venue within Inchinnan Business Park.

Their desire to move arose after Renfrewshire Council drew up a list of possible sites for the firm to move to.

As part of the discussions North Lanarkshire was mooted as a potential destination, with one of council’s planning experts saying it was “a better bet” than anything in Renfrewshire.

But another employee said the council “would wish to do everything possible to keep the company in Renfrewshire.” And, following the worker’s admission, WRC lodged papers with the council in a bid to take up home in Inchinnan Business Park’s Newmains Avenue.

Their bid to move across the county has hit a few snags and The Gazette can now reveal that the Inchinnan switch would never have been on the cards if WRC had gone along with a possible move to North Lanarkshire.

Council workers identified the Eurocentral industrial estate as an ideal home for their operation, which caused nearby homes to be infested with flies.

Eurocentral is 650 acres in size and plays home to various different firms and operations, from Morrison’s, Argos and Hovis to Warburton’s, Next and FedEx.

WRC, who also caused Johnstone residents to be evacuated from their homes when fierce flames tore through the property last January, told the council that they needed a site that had a shed around 40,000 square feet, with a piece of land about seven or eight acres in size.

According to Eurocentral’s website, they have two units for let and, although both are huge sheds they are much bigger than WRC need, they don’t have the amount of land WRC need to grow their business as much as they want.

Ken Goldie, Renfrewshire Council’s Senior Project Executive in the Planning and Economic Development Service, said he’d had secret discussions about the case.

Writing to three colleagues in July last year, Goldie was talking about potential locations for WRC, saying “they might consider Erskine Harbour suitable.” He added: “I have also spoken, discretely, with a Glasgow based agent contact.

“He, too, can’t think of anything on our patch, other than perhaps (very perhaps) at Hawkhead Road where Ciba Geigy are running down operations.

“Indeed, he was pretty certain that North Lanarkshire, probably around Eurocentral, might be a better bet.” Goldie sent the email to Development Standards Manager David Bryce, who works for the council’s Development and Housing Services, and two others.

Bryce then forwarded the email on to Robert Steenson – the Head of Operations in Community Resources.

Steenson replied to Bryce, revealing that Renfrewshire Council wanted to pull out all the stops to keep WRC – and their 15 members of staff – working in Renfrewshire.

He said: “We would wish to do everything possible to keep the company in Renfrewshire rather than locations such as Eurocentral.” Bryce echoed Steenson’s sentiments, writing back: “Yes – our priority is certainly to try and retain/accommodate them within Renfrewshire and not elsewhere.” More than a year on from the discussions, councillors are waiting to vote on the future of WRC.

Planning applications are usually given the go ahead or knocked back by council officers.

But WRC’s Inchinnan move bid will be decided by councillors due to the number of objections and the ill-feeling towards the proposals.

Council papers regarding the impending vote state: “It is considered that given the specific nature of the proposal which is the subject of this application, the surrounding uses and the need to consider the wider implications of such a use, that it would be appropriate for this application to be considered by the Board.”