Tributes pour in for veteran Labour councillor Maginnis

TRIBUTES were paid today to long-serving Labour councillor Elizabeth Maginnis, who died early yesterday of a brain haemorrhage.

Councillor Maginnis, 54, represented the Granton area for 22 years and served as education convener for both Lothian and Edinburgh.

She was taken ill at home on Thursday and rushed to hospital, where a brain haemorrhage was diagnosed. She died around 3am yesterday.

Friends and colleagues today praised her dedication and hard work, remembered her as a pioneer in education and a champion of the people she represented.

And they offered their sympathy to her husband Michael and their three children.

Former Lord Provost Eric Milligan said: "All of us are absolutely stunned. We knew Elizabeth had had her problems with health of late, fighting cancer, but she seemed to be over them all."

He said her involvement in politics had come about as a reaction to Margaret Thatcher. "Factory after factory was closing and unemployment levels soared. Elizabeth came to prominence at that time because she was also enthusiastically involved in so many of the campaigns which sprang up in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

"She was elected as a councillor in 1986 and immediately became vice-convener of education, very quickly moving on to become education convener - and was also education convener for Cosla.

"During all those years she was the acknowledged expert on education. She was a pioneer in the integration of youngsters with special needs into mainstream education, she launched a campaign to expand nursery education and also conducted delicate negotiations with the unions over new contracts for teachers.

"She was a great friend to have, a loyal friend and a remarkably talented Labour local government figure. In all she did and the way she did it, she blazed a trail.

"When she came into a room, the place was that bit brighter and the talk that bit livelier. The Labour group has lost not just a member, but arguably our largest personality."

Cllr Maginnis was first elected to Lothian Regional Council in 1986 and was education convener from 1990 until the region was abolished six years later. She continued as education convener on the new city council until 1999.

She stood unsuccessfully to become leader of Edinburgh's Labour group in 2006 after Donald Anderson stood down. At the time of her death she was Labour's economic development spokeswoman.

As education convener, she pioneered the "early intervention" strategy, putting extra staff into primary classrooms to help very young children in some of the poorest areas with their reading.

And she also made Edinburgh and Lothian the first to offer universal nursery education to three and four-year-olds - another policy now taken up across the country.

One of the hardest decisions she faced was to close down Ainslie Park High School, in her own ward. But she did it, despite fierce protests from parents, because she said it was the right thing to do.

In 2004, she was diagnosed with bowel cancer, but was treated at the Western General Hospital and was given the all clear last November.

She once challenged the then Leith MP Ron Brown to become a candidate for Westminster and also flirted with the idea of going to Holyrood or the European Parliament. She also found time to write a novel, The Group, based on life in a fictional Labour group in Edinburgh.

Tom Ponton, a former Tory councillor who defected to the Liberal Democrats, said: "She made an outstanding contribution and will be remembered as the people's champion.

"Controversial, tough, always fair, she was respected by all her colleagues from all parties. Edinburgh is poorer at her passing and politically her shoes will not be filled. I was proud to have known her and call her a friend,"

Labour group leader Andrew Burns, said everyone was shocked by Cllr Maginnis's sudden and tragic death.

He said: "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 irreplaceable."