North Powys is to get extra ambulance cover for a trial period. A rapid response vehicle will be based at Newtown Ambulance Station for 12 hours each day.

This will help fill the gaps in the emergency service for Montgomeryshire, the Welsh Ambulance Service has confirmed.

It will be available from 9.30am until 9.30pm each day and staffed by crews on overtime.

The move follows years of complaints that the vast rural area did not have enough ambulance cover.

Crews can be away from the county for more than three hours when they have to take patients across the border to Shrewsbury or Telford hospitals for treatment.

It is planned that the rapid response vehicle will be moved from Newtown to provide cover at any other area left without an ambulance.

Health watchdogs, Montgomeryshire Community Health Council, have been urging the ambulance service to provide a better service for many years, said its chief officer John Howard today.

“This is really good news. The RRV will be moved to cover any gaps in the service during a trial period to see if this will be an improvement.

“The ambulance service has now recognised there are problems in this area and I am pleased the ambulance service is trying something,” he said.

“I’m sure a lot of Powys residents will be extremely pleased that an extra service has been added in Montgomeryshire.”

Councillors Joy Jones, mayor of Newtown, said it was great news for the town and surrounding areas.

“We live in a rural catchment area so the more ambulance cover there is the better,” she said.