A FORMER Scottish rugby international faces a lengthy ban after it was ruled he used his position as a councillor to promote his own business interests.
Alastair Cranston, who was capped 19 times for his country, has been told by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland he has breached its code of conduct.
The 64-year-old now awaits his punishment, which could involve a suspension for up to a year from his role as member for Hawick and Denholm ward on Scottish Borders Council.
Mr Cranston had been accused of constantly promoting his rural recycling and renewable energy business in various council debates and admitted he had been taken aside by a senior council official and warned on several occasions.
The complaint about the SNP councillor promoting "anaerobic digestion" at meetings is understood to have come from a fellow councillor and he received notification of the findings from the Edinburgh-based standards commissioner on July 16.
Mr Cranston said: "I would be reluctant to use the word guilty, I have contravened the guidelines of what is acceptable in public life.
"I have been very naive and I suppose you could even say ignorant, but that is no defence. This investigation has lasted several months now and I will just have to wait and see what happens.
"I do not want to comment on possible sanctions."
He added: "I genuinely do not think I have done anything wrong. I never thought this was an issue. I will have to weigh up the future and deal with any punishment.
"There has been no financial gain whatsoever. If I have to, I can, and will, prove that."
Last week a press release from the offices of Scottish Borders Housing Association, of which Mr Cranston is a board member, announced it was supporting a feasibility study into a green energy plant at Burnfoot, Hawick.
In his Scottish Borders Council register of interests, Mr Cranston is listed as a director of Economic Recycling Services, which is involved in community and business waste recycling, including the provision of "local anaerobic digestion biogas facilities", and also has an agency contract with AgriKomp, which specialises in "energy generation from Biogas".
A graduate of Edinburgh University, he played rugby for Hawick before representing Scotland between 1976 and 1981.
From 2002 to 2005 he was chief executive of the Borders Reivers professional rugby team.
After they were disbanded, the businessman became involved in the development of rural recycling and renewable energy initiatives related to the linking of communities and agriculture.
He was elected as an SNP councillor to the Hawick and Denholm ward on Scottish Borders Council in 2012 after switching political allegiances from the Conservatives.
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 hereComments are closed on this article