A TWEEDDALE representative says she feels honoured after being named the SNP’s councillor of the year.

After the award was announced at the online conference on November 29, Heather Anderson took to Facebook to share the news.

Ms Anderson, who has represented the Tweeddale West ward since 2017, saw off competition from around 400 other SNP councillors to take the prize.

“You don’t quite believe it until you hear them read it out loud,” she said. “Absolutely delighted and honoured to be awarded SNP Councillor of the Year Award this morning at the SNP online conference.

“Thank you to whoever nominated me – it is such an honour to receive this award. I just can’t say that enough. Thank you.”

Ms Anderson is not the first elected member of Scottish Borders Council to receive recognition in recent weeks.

Galashiels councillor Euan Jardine, of the Conservatives, was praised for his work to set up the COVID-19 resilience group in the town last year, which went on to help hundreds of people during the pandemic.

Mr Jardine was given the LGIU Scotland Councillor Award for Resilience and Recovery at a ceremony in Glasgow.

Upon receiving his award, he was asked what the new normal post-coronavirus will be like.

He said: “I think the priority is just getting the confidence back, people getting their confidence back and knowing that the councils are doing what they can, the government’s doing what they can to help people get back to normal.”

He added: “And one thing I’ve noticed when I was setting up the resilience team was nobody was talking to each other, and I think it’s important to get people to talk to each other.”

Ms Anderson’s fellow Tweeddale West representative Kris Chapman, of the Liberal Democrats, was highly commended at the fourth annual awards in the New Councillor of the Year category.