High-profile figures stand for NTS board

several high-profile figures from Edinburgh and the Lothians are among those standing for election to the board of the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), as the organisation undergoes a major overhaul.

A board of 15 trustees is to be established, of whom ten will be directly elected by members.

Among those standing for election are Green MSP Robin Harper, conservation architect Nicholas Groves-Raines, former hotelier and past-president of the Chamber of Commerce, Donald MacDonald, and Denis Mollison, a founder member of the John Muir Trust and a retired maths and statistics professor from Heriot Watt University.

The 310,000 members of the trust will be invited to vote by February 2, with the new board due to be unveiled later in the month. NTS Chairman, Sir Kenneth Calman, said: "I cannot stress how important the new board will be to the NTS."