Lib Dem sorry for 999 error

A Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate apologised to ambulance service bosses this afternoon after making inaccurate claims about workers. Richard Burt said sorry for his "embarrassing" error.Mr Burt, who hopes to represent areas near Tenbury Wells, claimed a life had been lost because Shropshire's 999 calls were now taken in Brierley Hill. He claimed a person staying at a caravan park in Clunton on Friday had died after a mix up with 999 call takers in Brierley Hill.

He suggested that they had been unable to understand the word Clunton and later thought that Craven Arms was a pub.

He issued a press release containing the information.

However, his claims were condemned as inaccurate by West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman Murray MacGregor and this afternoon Mr Burt admitted he had got it wrong.

"This is embarrassing," he said. "If the information we have put out is wrong then I apologise unreservedly. I wouldn't wish to reflect badly on the efforts of staff."

Mr MacGregor said: "I am glad Mr Burt has apologised.

"Mr Burt appeared to have taken information provided by a caller to a phone-in programme on a radio station and issued it to the media without checking the facts.

"We will strongly defend our dedicated staff when inaccurate information is put into the public domain."

Mr MacGregor said officials had listened to the tape of the calls relating to this incident.

"The trust can confirm the address for an incident in Clunton was matched within 10 seconds," he said.

He said that the call handler had not made any errors.

Mr MacGregor said: "Ambulance staff do a superb job and are accountable for their levels of service.

"However we deprecate anyone - politician or otherwise - making inaccurate and unjustified attacks on our staff, with the danger this will undermine public confidence in their professionalism."