A former director in Kingston Council's children's services department has been announced as the new chairman of the borough's independent health and social care watchdog.

Grahame Snelling, who worked for the council for 22 years, will be the chairman of Kingston Healthwatch, which has been leaderless since it reformed in April.

His appointment was announced to councillors on Tuesday evening.

He left Kingston Council in March when his role of head of prevention and integration was made redundant.

His new role, heading up the organisation in charge of scrutinising health and social care run by the NHS, private firms and his former employers.

No-one at Kingston Healthwatch was available for comment yesterday afternoon, as they were not manning the office in the afternoon due to the heat, although accepting emails.

The rest of the board members have not yet been announced by Parkwood, the private company which runs several Healthwatch's across the country.