Targets for attending life threatening 999 calls were not met by the Great Western Ambulance Service.

Latest figures from the ambulance trust – which serves Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and the Avon area – showed that it achieved 74.3 per cent against a Government target of 75 per cent for attending Category A calls within eight minutes.

But, when the figures are broken down into counties and local authority areas, GWAS under performed in rural areas and over achieved in cities and towns.

For example it achieved 89.8 per cent in Swindon, 72.5 per cent in West Wiltshire, 68.2 per cent in North Wiltshire and 54.9 per cent in Kennet.

GWAS says it is contracted to achieve 75 per cent across the whole area rather than in each community.

Martin Flaherty, interim chief executive, blamed a prolonged spell of severe weather in December for the failure to meet the target of 75 per cent overall.

Controversial shift changes for ambulance staff were introduced last November and former chief executive David Whiting said unrest among staff over the new shift patterns also contributed to a significant fall in response times during December.

During 2010/11, GWAS responded to almost 100,000 Category A calls – up 11.5 per cent on the previous year – out of a total of 264,563 emergencies.

Mr Flaherty said: “Clearly it is disappointing that we fell just short of the national standard (75 per cent).

“It is also worth noting that although we just missed the eight minute standard we did reach 75 per cent of our patients within eight minutes and seven seconds.

“I am confident that GWAS has made further, significant progress towards becoming a consistently first class healthcare organisation. While speed of response to 999 calls is certainly important in immediately life threatening situations it is by no means the only requirement.

“The clinical care we provide to our patients is also measured and it is reassuring that we continue to improve.”

GWAS Unison steward and paramedic Chris Hewett said: “This news is deeply disappointing to our patients and a real kick in the teeth for all ambulance staff, who make daily sacrifices to provide the best possible service we can.

“GWAS management have said this failure was due to bad weather, however our communities should ask themselves whether it takes a rocket scientist to predict that bad weather will happen in the winter.”