Shropshire Star Editorial

I nearly missed this one in the Shropshire Star. Believe it or not, Eric Smith, the person who worte this editorial piece, works for BBC Radio Shropshire. The Beeb going against the Scottish Raj - a refreshing change.

Change part of regional blueprint

Shrewsbury's new ambulance headquarters, planned for Emstrey, has been put on the back burner.

It had long been the plan to take the service out of their cramped Abbey Foregate site to a more strategic, purpose built location on the town's ring road.

Apparently this stay-put order is just a temporary set-back - but am I surprised? Not in the slightest. You see the Shropshire Ambulance Service is no longer controlled in Shropshire. It is part of the Birmingham and Black Country Strategic Health Authority, and so the decisions are now made out of county, some 50 miles away.

Much has been said and written about the proposals to amalgamate police forces in the region, but isn't it an interesting co-incidence that the new "super" police force will cover an area which is exactly the same as the "super" ambulance service i.e. Shropshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Is this set-back for the ambulance service the first example of Shropshire losing out in this creeping regionalisation? I seem to recall that there were plans to relocate the Fire & Rescue Service HQ to the same site, but that has changed too. The operational centre will remain in St Michael's Street in Shrewsbury, but the call centre will relocate to around Junction 2 of the M54.

Coincidentally this will then cover the same area as the police and ambulance service. Government ministers are keen to point out that this is not regionalisation. Pull the other one.