THE Herald is seeking nominations for the Public Campaign or Campaigner category of the Scottish Politician of the Year awards, which take place next month.

This public accolade gives Herald readers the chance to nominate those who have engaged with Holyrood in the past year, and have most effectively and innovatively made politicians sit up and take notice of their calls for reform or action.

Last year's winner was Lochgilphead schoolgirl Martha Payne whose NeverSeconds blog about school meals won widespread praise before being briefly banned by Argyll and Bute Council. This added to her fame and resulted in her raising more than £130,000 for the charity Mary's Meals to build a new school kitchen in Malawi.

Other past winners have included the campaign to save RAF Lossiemouth, stalking activist Ann Moulds, Clydeside Action on Asbestos and the Farepak Campaign.

There are already five nominations in for the campaigner prize.

The Scottish Youth Parliament successfully fought for the franchise to be extended to 16-year-old at the referendum next year.

The homelessness charity Shelter made a perfectly timed call for an additional £20 million to mitigate the impact of the bedroom tax.

Govan Law Centre campaigned on the same issue, with its petition to ban evictions arising from the tax forming the basis of a Member's Bill introduced by Labour's Jackie Baillie.

The NHS whisteblower Rab Wilson has also been nominated after the former psychiatric nurse waged a lengthy Freedom of Information battle against Ayrshire and Arran health board over hospital safety.

Also nominated is Holyrood's Cross Party Group on Chronic Pain, which waged a long battle on behalf of Scotland's 800,000 sufferers, some of whom had to travel to Bath in south-west England for residential treatment. Earlier this year Health Secretary Alex Neil paid tribute to the group when promising that Scotland would finally get such a residential centre.

Making the nomination, osteoarthritis sufferer John Thomson from Glasgow and a group of other pain patients wrote: "We had no hope without this CPG, as no other organisation or charity had campaigned against these journeys or exposed short day services and taken on various governments and the medical establishment strongly."

Nominations for the award can be emailed to politician@theherald.co.uk or by contacting Alison Martin on 0141 302 7410.

The Herald Scottish Politician of the Year Awards are in their 15th year and remain as keenly contested as ever. The nine categories include a new award for the E-Politician of the Year, recognising the importance of Twitter, Facebooks and blogs in getting messages across. Winners will be honoured at a ceremony at Edinburgh's Prestonfield House Hotel on November 14.

The awards - supported by RBS Group, ScottishPower Renewables, NVT Group and the Improvement Service - seek to recognise those who have done most to shape Scottish politics.