Wiltshire MPs' fury at ambulance threat (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Wiltshire MPs' fury at ambulance threat

8:50am Thursday 15th May 2008

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MPs have backed the Gazette's campaign to keep the Wiltshire Air Ambulance in the county.

Amid growing concern that ambulance bosses want to ditch the Devizes-based helicopter and replace it with one based at Filton, near Bristol, we urge readers to add their name to our petition and display a campaign poster.

Devizes MP Michael Ancram and North Wiltshire MP James Gray have given their backing to the fight.

Mr Ancram said: "I have been a strong supporter of the Wiltshire Air Ambul-ance Appeal for a long time and have seen the enormously important work it does because of its swift response times. Axing the Wiltshire Air Ambulance and providing cover from Filton would be absolutely outrageous.

"In my view it would be an insult to all those people in Wiltshire who, over the years, have raised so much money to keep the air ambulance going."

Mr Gray, who was taken to Truro Hospital by the Cornwall Air Ambulance after falling down a cliff and rupturing his cruciate knee ligament, said: "A county like Wiltshire, which is very large and rural and has two major roads going through it - the M4 and A303 - badly needs its own air ambulance.

"If it were to become regionalised in any way, based at Filton or anywhere else, there would be constant demands on it from elsewhere and we wouldn't have our own air ambulance in Wiltshire."

Former Wiltshire Air Ambulance Appeal administrator Lesley Duncan has slammed the possible move to Bristol. She said: "This will be a catastrophe - call out times will be longer, there will be no more night flights and the people in Wiltshire will feel less inclined to support it.

"Money raised by people in Wiltshire should be spent on something that will benefit people in Wiltshire. his is an awful idea and one that has not been thought out.

"Everyone I have spoken to is completely behind the appeal to keep the service in Wiltshire and it certainly won't go without a fight. This idea has not come from someone who really cares about the Wiltshire Air Ambulance or any of its staff."

She was at the Castle Combe Steam Rally at the weekend collecting names on our petition. Within hours more than 1,000 signed their names at the event, which raises money for the air ambulance.

She said: " Nothing has been seriously thought about and it seems like someone has just taken a pin and put it in a map. The air ambulance has always been a service close to the hearts of people in Wiltshire and if this is taken away it will be heartbreaking."

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