A broadcast journalist has taken on a pioneering political brief under the BBC’s local democracy reporting scheme,

Oliver Leader de Saxe, who works for Iliffe Media’s Kent TV station KMTV, has taken up the one-of-a-kind role, covering local government across the entire South-East of England.

Oliver, pictured, takes over the role from KMTV journalist Gabriel Morris, who has moved to a new post with the channel as senior broadcast journalist.

Oliver’s new position involves creating tailored broadcast packages on local government issues for partner newsrooms across the South-East.

Posting on LinkedIn, he wrote: “Incredibly excited to say that I’ll be working as a multimedia local democracy reporter at KMTV, providing high quality content across social media and broadcast channels and holding power to account at a local level across the South East.

“It’s an innovative, first-of-its-kind pilot with the LDRS that is bringing scrutiny of local authorities to new audiences, and I’m looking forward to continuing what the fantastic Gabriel Morris began.

“And with devolution on the horizon and Kent County Council in new hands, there’s no better time to get started.”