EVENTS to commemorate East Renfrewshire’s fallen war heroes will be held this weekend.

Residents, councillors, local dignitaries and veterans will attend services across the area to pay their respects on Remembrance Sunday, following a year of cancelled events due to the Covid pandemic.

In Barrhead, members of the United Services Club will lead a parade that leaves from the town’s Paisley Road at 2pm and will reach Cowan Park for a service and wreath-laying ceremony at the war memorial from 2.30pm.

Members of the public and community groups who would like to lay a wreath are asked to do so outwith the official ceremony, to help ensure the number of people within the cenotaph area is kept within permitted limits.

Elsewhere, members of the Neilston War Memorial Association (NWMA) will meet at Neilston Parish Church at 11.45am to lead a parade through the village to the war memorial for a service of Remembrance and wreath-laying at noon.

A NWMA spokesperson said: “We hope to see a good turnout. We do, however, ask people to bear in mind that the pandemic is still with us, so they may wish to wear a face covering when in a larger crowd.”

Remembrance Sunday will also be marked in Newton Mearns, beginning with a parade that will leave from Fairweather Hall at 10.45am and reach the cenotaph in Ayr Road for a service and laying of wreaths organised by the Royal British Legion’s Newton Mearns branch at 11am.

The Glasgow Jewish Representative Council and Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women will also parade from Fairweather Hall at 10.35am to join the service at the cenotaph.

East Renfrewshire Provost Jim Fletcher said: “I’m delighted that Remembrance Sunday services will resume across the area after our usual services had to be taken online last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The anniversary of the Armistice that ended the First World War in 1918 is an important opportunity to pay tribute to those who have lost their lives and made sacrifices for our country to protect our lives and freedoms, so it is a day we must not forget.

“I’d also encourage as many people as possible to take part in the two-minute silence at 11am on November 11 and November 14.”