Welshpool residents made an impassioned plea to keep the town's Air Ambulance base at a public meeting about its future.

The public consultation about the long-term future of the base is under way. It was revealed in the County Times last year that base could be closed and combined with the Caernarfon team at a new north Wales site.

However Emergency Ambulance Service Commissioner Stephen Harrhy, who is running the consultation emphasised that “no decision has been made”.

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This did not stop the over 100 residents coming to give a spirited defence to keep the service in the town, bringing research and asking a series of probing questions.

Many members of the audience had seen loved ones saved by the service pleaded for it to be kept. This included one man whose granddaughter had a riding accident and he said if the service wasn’t as good due to it being based further away that “she wouldn’t be alive today.”

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This was echoed by another audience member whose brother had been rescued from a remote area after a motorcycle accident, which was doubly hindered by poor phone signal.

Another said: “I plead with you not to take away the service just because it looks good on a map.”

Many called for alternatives to the base being closed with calls for more resources to be invested into the service as there was in 2021 when it went from a 48-hour service to a 60 hour service others called for a 24 hour service to be run from Welshpool to meet unmet need across mid and north Wales.

The panel which consisted of Mr Harrhy, Wales Air Ambulance representative, Steven Stokes and Dr David Lockey, a consultant and the national director of the NHS’s Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service, were faced with many probing questions about the effectiveness of the alternatives.     

Many voiced their scepticism and it was conceded that an Air Ambulance was more effective in rural areas whilst the road based rapid response vehicles (RRV) were more effective which led to one audience member asking: “You’ve said many times that the air ambulance service serves rural areas better than road ambulances, if that’s the case, why are we even here?”

To which Mr Harrhy responded: “To make it even better.”

County Times:

Local politicians also criticised the idea of moving the base. County Councillor for Welshpool Graham Breeze said he wanted the data used to make the decision “stripped bare and started from scratch” and asked for a guarantee that any decision would not disadvantage the area.

Mr Harrhy responded: “If Mid Wales is left disadvantaged, I will have failed.”

Welshpool Town Councillor Phil Pritchard gave an impassioned defence to keep the service and said “it is always the same mistake – look after the A55 corridor look after the M4 Corridor and to hell with what goes on in the middle. Why should someone come along and take the whole thing away?”

There were even representatives from across the border with Heather Kidd, Shropshire Councillor for Chirbury and Worthen asking for border communities such as hers and Bishop’s Castle to be included in any ongoing analysis.

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Organiser of the campaign to save the Welshpool base Cynthia Duce was delighted with the tunout and the questions being asked by residents.

“We did a headcount and there was 125 but it could have been even more. People are now queuing down the stairs for the second meeting. The turnout has been absolutely fantastic,” said Mrs Duce.

“There were very, very good questions about the data put out last year and it has been questioned which it should be because it is flawed. They were the questions we were waiting for people to ask.”

Mr Harrhy told the meeting that he would be taking on board the points made at the meeting and encouraged people to send in questions and to get their views heard.