THE co-convener of the Scottish Greens has launched her party’s local election campaign, despite quitting Edinburgh Council and deciding not stand again in May.
Maggie Chapman said “more people than ever” would have the chance to vote Green, with the party fielding 200 candidates, compared to 80 in 2012.
However Ms Chapman will not be one of them.
A City of Edinburgh councillor from 2007 to 2015, she quit to concentrate on getting elected as a North East list MSP last year but was unsuccessful.
The Greens have councillors in five of Scotland’s 32 councils, but hope to extend their reach, and say they could hold the balance of power in some authorities.
Co-convener Patrick Harvie MSP said his party had shown commitment to local services be securing an extra £160m for councils in a budget deal with the SNP.
He said: “It’s this bold and constructive approach that more Green councillors will bring to our local authorities.”
Ms Chapman, whose three-year term as Rector of Aberdeen University ends this year, said she would support candidates’ campaigns as co-convener.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel