CHANGES to the ambulance service were discussed by Daventry District Council’s strategy group.
The plans from East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) would see Daventry’s ambulance station closed and replaced by a hub in Northampton for maintaining vehicles, and community posts set up across the district for crews to await calls.
The report showed in Northamptonshire the percentage of the most serious calls getting an ambulance within eight minutes has dropped from 77.04 per cent in 2009/10, to 73.74 for the months from April this year.
It also stated the service had not presented ‘wholly convincing data’ to support the changes at a local level.
Cllr Ken Melling said: “Frankly, I don’t give a damn where the ambulance station is, I care about the response times.”
Cllr Wendy Randall pointed out that the changes would see no extra ambulances, and so would have little impacts on response times. But EMAS officers said time would be saved by keeping vehicles fully maintained.
Members of Daventry Town Council also voiced concerns about the plans at a meeting on Monday (November 26).
The council were unanimous in the view that the proposals would be detrimental to both employees and users of the service.
Members expressed concern with the lack of public consultation and urged members of the public to view the consultation and make their views known either by responding to the consultation or attending a public meeting being held on Monday December 3, 6.30pm start to 8pm at The Abbey, Market Square, Daventry.