Borders councillor is suspended

SNP member Alastair Cranston debated and voted on an issue when he should have declared a business interest.

His suspension was confirmed following a hearing of the Standards Commission for Scotland at Scottish Borders Council’s headquarters in Newtown St Boswells on Friday morning.

The panel said the businessman should have declared an interest and withdrawn from the room until the debate about rural recycling and renewable energy had concluded on December 12, 2013.

It found the 64-year-old former Scottish rugby international - who has represented the Hawick and Denholm ward since 2012 - had been involved in discussions about anaerobic biogas digestion, a gas-generating process in which his two companies specialise.

Councillor Cranston accepted he had breached the councillors’ code of conduct.

The hearing panel suspended Councillor Cranston’s entitlement to attend all Council, Committee and Sub Committee meetings of Scottish Borders Council effective from Friday 16 October 2014, for a period of three months.

After the verdict councillor Cranston said: “I now fully recognise that I should have declared an interest and not been present at a particular discussion in the meeting of the full Council on December 12, 2013.

“I accept that I have breached the Code of Conduct as a result of an error in judgement.

“There was no intention in any of my actions to make a financial gain for myself personally or for my business.” Hawick-born Cranston was capped 19 times for Scotland at rugby between 1976 and 1981.

Following the decision to suspend Councillor Cranston’s entitlement to attend all council, committee and sub-committee meetings of Scottish Borders Council for three months, effective from Thursday, October 16, a spokesperson for SBC said: “This matter has been fully investigated through the appropriate channels and we note the decision of the Standards Commission for Scotland.”