Borough councillors have called on the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) to confirm that it is “actively seeking” a new base in the borough after potential plans to close the 999 emergency call centre in town were revealed.
This followed a unanimous vote on a Labour Group motion during last night’s Full Council Meeting (Wednesday, 27 November).
Cllr Fouzia Zamir Atiq (Cauldwell), presented the motion on behalf of the Group, and as the chair of the Chair of the Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee.
“My fellow councillors on that committee are very concerned to hear of plans to close the Emergency Operations Centre in Bedford and believe we should do everything we can to retain a centre in Bedford Borough and get this issue resolved as soon as possible.
“These are skilled jobs, and the local knowledge of the diverse workforce would be lost if calls were taken in Norwich or Chelmsford.
“Very few of the staff presently employed in Bedford would be able to commute to or transfer to these locations. The motion… calls for all options to be explored to retain this vital service within the borough.”
Cllr Martin Towler (Conservative, Riseley), the portfolio holder for neighbourhoods and communities: health and wellbeing, said the issue is connectivity “within the place”.
“I don’t know how we can help them with their connectivity and where we can find them a different place to go,” he said. “The decision hasn’t been made yet, but we need to talk about it and try and bring it forward because it will be devastating for 200 people.”
Cllr Dean Crofts (Lib Dems, Kingsbrook) said: “This is a bad decision if they do go ahead, as councillor Towler says they haven’t made the decision yet.
“But they also haven’t created a business plan of how it’s actually going to work. We have asked for that business plan to come back to the council to justify any decision that they do take.
“But this is going to be bad for staff and we believe it’s going to be bad for residents. It means there’s only going to be two of these call centres in the whole of East Anglia, and there’ll be nothing in the west of [this] region.
“So we will be relying on people in Chelmsford and Norwich to direct our ambulances to our residents, which I don’t think is acceptable.”
Cllr Graeme Coombes (Wixams and Wilstead), said the Conservative Group supported the motion as it was “absolutely the right thing to do”.
“I was speaking to somebody in Wixams the other day who used to work there, and apparently the working conditions inside are not great,” he said.
“I don’t know if we’ve got spare space in Borough Hall, I know we’re looking to find additional people, this might be something we can do to assist with this,” he said.
All those members eligible to vote voted in favour of the motion.
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
