Alison aims for Scottish Parliament

12.00.00am GMT Sat 13th Jan 2007

One of Ellon's longest serving councillors, Alison McInnes, has been chosen by the Liberal Democrats to contest the North East Scotland regional (list) seat in this May's Scottish Parliamentary elections.

Cllr McInnes, who has represented Ellon and area for 15 years said "It's great to have been selected as a PSPC for North East Scotland. It has been an enormous privilege to serve the people of Ellon and Ythan as a local authority councillor and I hope I can continue to count on their support for my bid to give North East Scotland an additional, regional Liberal Democrat MSP. Over the years I have been successful in campaigning for improvements to the region's infrastructure and I want to take that campaigning to Holyrood now".

President of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Malcolm Bruce MP said "Alison has been a hard working councillor and has been very attentive to the needs of the people of Ellon for 15 years. She has been an excellent chair of both the Infrastructure Services Committee and of NESTRANS. I know that if she is elected to the Scottish Parliament she will be a first rate MSP who will serve all of the North East very well."

Cllr McInnes is one of Aberdeenshire Council's most senior councillors, having chaired its Infrastructure Services Committee for 8 years. She also chairs Nestrans - the Regional Transport Partnership for North East Scotland. She co -chairs the regeneration action plan Board 'Building Buchan New Beginnings' and the joint Strategic Planning Committee for the city and shire. For 6 years she served on the East Areas Board of Scottish Natural Heritage. At a local level she has been a strong ally of young people in their campaigns for better facilities and a stronger voice in decision making.

Nicol Stephen, Deputy First Minister and leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats said in his new year message "This has been a momentous year for the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Our success in the Dunfermline by-election sent shockwaves through the foundations of UK and Scottish politics. The Liberal Democrats achieved a massive 16% swing from Labour and Willie Rennie gained the seat. It was a turning point and for the first time it is now clear the Liberal Democrats can be Scotland's largest party. The party is growing in support, particularly amongst young people and increasingly in new parts of Scotland."

The Party is confident that Alison will be joining North East MSPs Nicol Stephen, Nora Radcliffe, and Mike Rumbles at Holyrood after May 3rd.