Kingston Council (RBK) have apologised to residents in the borough after a "printing error" led to personalised letters concerning disabled family members being mistakenly sent out.

The letter was a joint message from Kingston Council, the NHS and children support services, and contained information on support for disabled residents in the borough.

It had been designed a general insert for the Your Kingston residents magazine.

However, due to an unspecified "error" in the printing process, the letter was sent alongside the magazine with personalised addresses to individual households, irrespective of whether they were home to people considered to be living with disabilities.

Residents reacted with surprise and scorn online after some received letters sent to their home addresses erroneously.

The council since issued an explanation and apologised to residents even as the letters were due to be sent out over the weekend (June 27-28) from Friday June 26.

"It has come to our attention this morning that there has been a printing error with the distribution of our borough magazine. This will be arriving through letterboxes from today," RBK said on Friday.

"The magazine is accompanied by a joint letter from Kingston Council, Achieving for Children, Kingston SEND Parent Carers Forum and the NHS.

"This letter should have been an unaddressed insert within the magazine to raise awareness of support available to families of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

"It should not have been a personally addressed letter to households. We apologise for any distress this may have caused for parents, carers and families.

"The letter and the magazine contain information to help and support residents - we hope that people still find these sources of information useful," the RBK statement added.