Shropshire Star

Shrewsbury school head leads call to close 999 hub

A?headteacher today called for the closure of an ambulance maintenance station which has been built near its grounds before one of her pupils is hurt in an accident.

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Priory School headteacher Candy Garbett, at Longden Road, Shrewsbury, has called for the ambulance hub to be closed

Candy Garbett, headteacher at the Priory School in Shrewsbury, said she believes an accident is 'inevitable' as ambulances answer emergency calls from the new £1.2 million hub station in Longden Road station.

The site is near the Priory and Meole Brace schools, which are attended by more than 2,000 children.

The West Midlands Ambulance Service risk assessment has concluded that measures to protect youngsters are not adequate.

The report added that while the possibility of such a collision was 'unlikely', a potential incident could have 'catastrophic' consequences. The issue has been added to the service's official risk register.

Mrs Garbett said: "I have been campaigning to get the hub closed. I'm outraged at the whole thing and the way it has been handled."

Ambulance service bosses today said that more than 1,300 emergency incidents had been responded to from the hub since January 14 – an average of almost one an hour.

The risk assessment was conducted in February after a Priory School pupil was involved in a near-miss with a slow-moving ambulance at a pedestrian crossing shortly after the site opened in January.

The hub was opened as part of the ambulance service's Make Ready plans and was designed to be chiefly used for cleaning, stocking and repairing vehicles.

Under the shake-up, Abbey Foregate ambulance station was closed with the Longden Road hub and three community ambulance stations in Battlefield Enterprise Park, Oxon Business Park and Shrewsbury Business Park opened.

The trust is also looking to open a fourth community station in Meole Brace to reduce the number of calls being dealt with from Longden Road, but is struggling to find a suitable location.

Mrs Garbett said ambulances were still regularly responding to emergency incidents from the site. She said it is highly likely there will be an accident unless the situation changes.

"I feel it is inevitable – that's why I haven't allowed it to rest," she said.

"If in a couple of years something happens, the parents and children will say 'what did you try' and we want to be able to say we tried everything we could."

Hilary Burke, headteacher at Meole Brace School, said emergency call-outs from the site did appear to be falling.

"My concerns as a headteacher are on the potential for an accident between an emergency vehicle and one of our students," she said. "Our feeling is that the frequency of the emergency vehicles has dropped significantly."

A spokesman for WMAS said the chances of a collision happening are small because staff are trained to drive under emergency conditions.

He added: "There is no doubt that we have been disappointed by how many responses have come directly from the hub as it has never been our intention to have such a high number. We have seen a gradual reduction in numbers in recent weeks but we recognise further work needs to be done."

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