TROUBLED Ashburton – already in danger of losing its fire station – has been left in a ‘999 black hole’ after the virtual shutdown of the town’s ambulance station, it emerged this week.

Shocked town councillors say they were astonished to hear the station had lost its entire ambulance crew to Totnes in a move which ducked right under their radar.

‘We were told nothing about it!’ they declared as one, insisting that such a loss at the very least should have been the subject of public consultation, granted to the town’s imperilled fire station.

Ambulance chiefs insist they are not deserting the town completely.

In a statement they argued: ‘The station will remain open as a standby point for responding to incidents in the local area.

‘The ambulance vehicle that was operating from Ashburton for 12 hours a day will be moved to Totnes and will be available 24 hours a day, which is an increase in our resources for the South Hams area.’

Relocated

And they added: ‘Our staff who were based at Ashburton have been relocated to Totnes, although they will respond to incidents from Ashburton as required.’

But that didn’t impress the town’s civic leaders who condemned the substantial scaling down of cover for Ashburton and its surrounding areas.

Mayor Don Distin, already fighting a rearguard action to save the fire station, complained: ‘We knew nothing at all about the ambulance move. It’s a bolt out of the blue.’

And he recalled: ‘The service was taken away from us a few years ago, but was reopened when it was realised how many emergency calls it dealt with. It’s just the same with the fire station. At least we have a chance to influence the way that decision might go.’

Fellow councillor John Nutley chipped in: ‘There was some talk of a possible closure when the hospital went a few years ago, but that was all. This is disappointing – quite ridiculous in fact.’

Local League of Friends secretary and town councillor Elaine Baker was equally miffed that the ambulance provision had been severely diluted.

‘It’s a stupid move,’ she blasted.

‘This part of South Devon desperately needs an ambulance station. They took it away a few years ago and it was back a year later. Now they’ve more or less taken it way again. We are concerned.’

Town clerk Brice Broughton was similarly annoyed that no formal notice of the damaging downgrade had been disclosed by ambulance chiefs.

‘No one told us anything, although there had been rumours about for years,’ he revealed.

The first indication that the ambulance station was being stripped down came from a crew member on a social media site.

Joe Cartwright said: ‘On behalf of all the crew past and present we would like to say thank you to you all for your support over the years.

‘As the last-ever shift of the Ashburton Ambulance Station comes to an end, after many decades of serving the townspeople, we are being redeployed to Totnes.’

He continued: ‘The station will still be used as a standby point, so crews will occasionally be there to provide cover.

‘So, from us all, thank you. Booking off for a final time, the crew of 2300 Ashburton.’

A spokesman for South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust said in a prepared statement: ‘We’ve been working with our commissioners to try and reduce demand on the ambulance service and improve response times. Significantly, commissioners have agreed to provide an extra £12 million funding for the additional resources required to improve our performance.

‘This new investment, Our People Plan, will enable us to recruit more than 240 additional frontline staff, giving us the opportunity to deliver even higher standards of patient care. It has also given us the chance to review and plan where our crews, our vehicles and therefore our stations need to be located, based on analysis of current and predicted demand levels.’

Demand

He added: ‘The demand on the ambulance service and the nature of the calls we receive has changed significantly over time, and some of our stations are no longer located where we need them to be.

‘Many of our stations are also in need of significant repair and refurbishment. Patients are not seen or treated at ambulance stations and our crews are rarely at a station, because they are either treating patients at the scene or are on standby at strategic locations across the region in order to best respond to incidents.’