Decision on ambulance centres

The future of ambulance call centres in Staffordshire and the West Midlands was being decided at a meeting today. Plans to reduce the five bases to three have been the subject of a lengthy consultation.

More than 130 public meetings have been held.

Today, the West Midlands Ambulance Service board was expected to seal the fate of the centres. The meeting, in public, was being held at the Banks's Stadium, home of Walsall FC.

Before the meeting, ambulance service spokeswoman Claudine Weeks said: "I imagine there will be discussion, hopefully followed by a decision."

Independent consultant Graham Shearman has compiled a report for the board to consider.

West Midlands and Staffordshire ambulance trusts officially merged in September and have openly declared plans for a shake-up of the call centres.

Currently there are five - at Millennium Point, Brierley Hill; Stone Road, Stafford; Dale Street, Leamington Spa; Bransford, near Worcester; and Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury.

Under the plans the Brierley Hill centre would remain, with a new regional emergency operations centre at Tollgate Business Park, Stafford, and the Leamington Spa would become a support centre.

The Stafford and Bransford centres are timetabled for closure in March.