Alan Chambers (born 15 October 1947) is a politician from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Since the 2016 election he has served as an

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...

(UUP) MLA for North Down. Chambers was elected to

North Down Borough Council North Down Borough Council was a Local Council in County Down in Northern Ireland. It merged with Ards Borough Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become North Down and Ards District Council. Its m ...

in a by-election on 17 April 1991 as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, representing the

Ballyholme Bangor ( ; ) is a city and seaside resort in County Down, Northern Ireland, on the southern side of Belfast Lough. It is within the Belfast metropolitan area and is 13 miles (22 km) east of Belfast city centre, to which it is linked ...

and

Groomsport Groomsport () is a village and townland two miles north east of Bangor in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the south shore of Belfast Lough and on the north coast of the Ards Peninsula. Groomsport has a population of 3,005 people accordin ...

electoral area. He was re-elected in several subsequent elections, topping the poll in the elections of

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

and 2001, and elected as the second candidate in 2005 and 2011. He served as Mayor of North Down for the 2000–2001 term. Following the abolition of North Down council, Chambers was elected to the successor council of North Down and Ards at the 2014 elections, topping the poll in the Bangor East and Donaghadee area. Chambers contested the 1995 Westminster by-election in North Down, finishing fourth with 8% of the vote. Alan Chambers constituency office

At the 1996 Northern Ireland Forum elections, Chambers headed his own ''Independent Chambers'' list. However, the list was unsuccessful, polling 567 votes (0.08%) across Northern Ireland, with Chambers receiving the majority of these in North Down, representing 1% of the total vote in that constituency.North Down election results
Ark.ac.uk, accessed 9 May 2016 He contested North Down as an independent at each subsequent Assembly election, receiving 3.7% of first preferences in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, 3.5% in 2003, 3.7% in 2007 and 6.3% in 2011. In December 2015, Chambers joined the UUP and was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly at the 2016 election. He stood for the North Down constituency in the 2019 General Election for the UUP, finishing third with 12.1% of the vote. He currently represents the UUP on the Health Committee in the Assembly and is the party spokesperson on Health. He also served as a member of the NI Policing Board between December 2018 and June 2020.

References

External links

Northern Ireland Assembly profileUlster Unionist Party profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chambers, Alan 1947 births Living people Politicians from Belfast Ulster Unionist Party MLAs Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 Mayors of places in Northern Ireland Members of North Down Borough Council Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027