I HAVE been a local councillor in Paisley for nearly 27 years. I am a very experienced community representative and have stood a number of times for both the Westminster and Holyrood parliaments, always within my local area of Paisley.

My capacity to understand the needs of constituents is very broad, and I have constantly fought for fairness and for the needs of the least well off in our society.

I have long fought against the Labour Party’s expectation of always ruling within their personal fiefdom of Paisley.

I was particularly successful in this when the Liberal Democrats created a coalition with the SNP in 2007-12 to run Renfrewshire Council when I became the depute Leader of the council.

I have a particular specialisms in Social Work and the Arts and Heritage of Paisley, and I am delighted that the work I started to develop in the arts and heritage in Paisley is now the basis for the regeneration of Paisley Town centre.

I am proud that it has been the Liberal Democrats who have introduced the “Triple Lock” for pensions, ensuring that future pensions will always keep pace with inflation.

I also feel that, despite having to work with the Tories in government, the LibDems have been able to introduce its number one policy, which was to allow ordinary working people the ability to keep more of their own earnings.

In 2010 everyone had to pay tax when they earned £6,500. Now people don’t pay tax until they earn £10,400. And we have forced the Tories to make real changes to take more money from the very wealthy in our country.

My personal attributes are honesty, commitment and being a very hard working politician – the fact that I have been elected time and again to my council seat is testament to that, particularly in 2012.

I never promise people that I will achieve everything they want – but what I will promise is that I will work as hard as I can for them, to ensure the best possible outcome.