Ambulances crews across Shropshire and the West Midlands have rejected a move to install CCTV cameras in their vehicles to help protect them against violence and abuse.

Staff health and safety representatives had requested West Midlands Ambulance Service fit the cameras and they had been installed to 20 ambulances.

Bit now they are being taken out because frontline staff don’t want them.

Crews were balloted on the move but only 10 per cent voted.

And of these two thirds said that cameras should not be installed.

It had been decided not to activate the cameras until the result of the ballot was known and yesterday the service began to remove them.All new vehicles being introduced to the service fleet were being fitted with one camera inside the back of the ambulance and one monitoring the rear of the vehicle.

There has been a massive rise in the number of violent attacks on ambulance crews in recent years.

Health Minister Ann Keen, in a written reply to a parliamentary question, said there were 46 assaults against West Midland staff in 2005/06.The figure rose to 99 the following year and to 147 in 2007/08.

West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman Murray MacGregor said today that the cameras would have provided high quality recordings that would have been admissible evidence in any incident that went to court.

He said it was “puzzling” that the cameras had been rejected.

The cost of the project is not known.

But Mr MacGregor said: “Protecting staff is far more more important.”