THE New City Heating Milton Keynes Sunday League has a new chairman in place.

Ron James was selected by the league's committee and was confirmed as the new chairman at last Tuesday's annual general meeting.

James replaces former fixtures secretary Barry Staniland, who took over as stand-in chairman for two months, but who retired at the end of the season.

He had replaced Bill Johnson, who stepped down from the role in April after moving away from the area.

Both Johnson and Staniland had been on the league's committee for more than 30 years and were both recently made honorary vice presidents.And Johnson was also presented with a silver salva to mark his services to football during his lengthy reign as chairman.

Both Staniland and Johnson had voiced their concerns as to what they regarded as the negative attitude adopted by some clubs, claiming it was all having a detrimental effect on the league.

And Johnson went as far as to say that he feared for the future of the amateur game in Milton Keynes if something wasn't done to address the problem.

The onus is now firmly on new chairman Ron James and vice-chairman Gareth Vickers and the rest of the newly elected committee to maintain the credibility of the league next season.

The emphasis is likely to be on improving attitudes of the clubs towards the league committee and officials.