Five Kingston councillors have been appointed to act as mental health champions on strategic committees.

The mental health champions are Cllr Anita Schaper, Cllr Olivia Boult, Cllr Zain Abbas, Cllr Mark Beynon, and Cllr Lesley Heap.

Kingston council has joined over a 100 local authorities with a recognised council member whose role is to champion mental health in the local community.

Their role will be to advocate for mental health on behalf of the council for their committee, provide leadership on mental health, and attend training provided by Public Health England.

The appointments on each of the council’s strategic committees were confirmed at a council meeting on October 16.

Leader of the Council, Councillor Liz Green, said: “We made the appointment of a mental health champion a manifesto commitment.

“There was so much interest from our members that we realised that were able to have one on each committee.

“The beauty behind that is, through the training these champions will receive, every decision that the council takes, there will be someone asking about the mental health implications of the decision.”

Committees with a mental health champion are children’s and adults care and education, community engagement, environment and sustainability, finance and contracts and strategic housing and planning.