Alastair Cranston
Alastair Cranston is a Scottish National Party politician and a councillor on Scottish Borders Council for the Hawick and Denholm ward.
Born in Hawick on 11 December 1949, in the Borders Region, Cranston is a former Rugby Union international with Scotland for whom he played as a Centre and won 19 caps between 1976 and 1981.
In 1987 he was one of the founders of the Borders Machinery Ring and would subsequently become Manager. This role ended in 2002 when he was appointed Chief Executive of the Borders Reivers Rugby team which lasted until 2005. Since then he was involved in the development of rural recycling and renewable energy initiatives related to linking communities and agriculture.
He was recruited by the SNP, after failing to win the Scottish Conservative nomination, to contest the Hawick and Denholm ward for the party in the 2012 Scottish local elections. He polled 381 first preferences, and after transfers, secured the last seat in the ward on the sixth count at the expense of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
After the election the SNP formed a coalition administration with the Lib Dems and with Independents. He is a member of the following committees; Planning and Building Standards, Appeals Panel and Educational Appeals Panel.
