A VETERAN councillor died yesterday of a brain haemorrhage just months after winning a long- running battle against cancer.
Elizabeth Maginnis, a councillor in Edinburgh for more than 21 years, was admitted to the city's Western General with a suspected haemorrhage on Thursday afternoon.
The 54-year-old Labour councillor, who won election to the new Forth ward last Ma
y, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2004, but was given the all-clear in November and returned to the City Chambers after an absence of just a few months.
In 2006 she mounted a bid to become council leader.
She came second to Ewan Aitken by just four votes, and the level of support she secured played a big part in persuading her to stand for election again.
When Mr Aitken quit the post suddenly earlier this year Ms Maginnis was seen as a leading contender to replace him, but she declined to put her name forward, citing family reasons. Andrew Burns was eventually elected the new leader.
Mr Burns said: "Everyone is totally shocked by the sudden and tragic death of Elizabeth.
"First and foremost, Elizabeth was a member of a large and very loving family, of whom she spoke often, and all our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.
"Elizabeth was an elected councillor in Edinburgh for over two decades and all throughout that period she lived in, worked in, and represented North Edinburgh. She was an intrinsic part of that local community and her breadth of knowledge, experience and sheer passion for the north of this city will be frankly irreplaceable."
Ms Maginnis held the position of education leader on Lothian Regional Council in the 1990s and the same post on the new City of Edinburgh Council when it was created in 1996.
Although consigned to the backbenches after a falling-out with the party's leadership in Edinburgh in the late 1990s, in recent years she held the post of chairwoman of Waterfront Edinburgh, the council company masterminding the regeneration of Granton.
Mr Aitken said: "
Elizabeth was clear in what she wanted. She was passionate about social justice and the rights of the excluded and was willing to take risks and lead where others would have shied away."
The full article contains 382 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
