A SENIOR career civil servant has been appointed the new chairman of NHS Tayside.

Sandy Watson, an ex-chief executive of both the former Tayside Regional Council and Angus Council, replaces Peter Bates, who is retiring.

Mr Watson has been a non-executive member of the NHS Tayside board for three years. His four-year appointment took effect from yesterday.

Paying tribute to Mr Bates, who is terminally ill, Mr Watson said, “Peter is a hard act to follow.

“He is an individual of remarkable resilience and strength of purpose, who was instrumental in pulling NHS Tayside out of what one might euphemistically describe as a precarious predicament, financial and otherwise, and in turning it into what is regarded as one of the best-performing health boards in Scotland.”

Mr Watson said he hoped to “build on” what Mr Bates has delivered, and “foster and build upon partnership arrangements with all staff, patients and the public.”

He was particularly keen to encourage interest from younger people, “not just as the citizens of tomorrow, but as the citizens of today.”

Mr Watson was a teacher and took over as Tayside’s education director in 1990.

He became chief executive of Tayside Regional Council in December 1994, and was appointed chief executive of Angus Council the following May upon local government reorganisation. He retired from this post in June 2005.

Mr Watson, who was awarded an OBE for services to local government in 2003, also chaired the Project Group which delivered one million concessionary fare cards to the over-60s and the disabled.

He is chairman of Angus College board of management, a member of the Scottish Funding Council, and a member of court and honorary fellow of Abertay University, Dundee.

He has also been chairman of the Scottish advisory committee of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.