Three former journalism lecturers are set to launch a new website which aims to champion the rights of grandparents.

The ex-tutors who all taught on journalism courses at Darlington College have created Grandparentsconnect.co.uk which is due to go live on 1 October.

The website is the idea of freelance journalist and media consultant John Gibb and it aims to provide a hub where grandparents can discuss issues important to them, as well as including news articles on topics of interest.

John is joined by Guy Williams, a former Yorkshire Television reporter who still teaches Public Affairs in Leeds and writes on Rugby Union, and Mark Parry, a former executive editor of the Yorkshire Post.

Said John: “We will be covering lots of issues such as finance, sport, politics, travel, wine, books and the legal rights of grandparents.

“We want to start a debate on a range of topics and hope that grandparents will join us and make full use of the site so that they will benefit.

“Obviously, there is a serious side to what we will be covering, but we want to make our site entertaining as well and hopefully our users will have some fun, too.”

The fourth member of the Grandparents Connect team is Lesley Hagon, who currently lectures in education at Darlington College.