PROPOSALS to close Worcester's ambulance control room and regionalise the service, revealed by this newspaper on Saturday, should alarm every resident of south Worcestershire.

The West Midlands Ambulance Service plans, which would see the closure of the Bransford control room, are described as "a significant boost for patients".

There are a variety of reasons given to justify this description. Most of them involve meaningless phrases such as "care pathways".

Indeed, it is also suggested that routing 999 calls from Worcester to Stafford or Brierley Hill will help to deal with natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

On the basis that such incidents are rarer than hen's teeth in these parts, we can probably dismiss them as key reasons for this proposal.

The real reason for closing two of the five current control rooms is simple - it will save money.

Selling off the Bransford site will make the trust about £650,000. Add in the other two centres earmarked for closure, in Stafford and Shrewsbury, and that revenue figure climbs to almost £3 million.

Annual savings are estimated at £500,000. Meanwhile, the one-off costs of setting up the regionalised service are £2.5 million.

So that leaves the ambulance service £1 million in the black.

And the patients of south Worcestershire? Who knows?

Our fear is that the loss of local knowledge from the Worcester control room has the potential to put lives at risk.

The ambulance service says that advances in technology and a "rehearsed questioning procedure" mean such local knowledge is no longer important.

We beg to differ.

The people of Worcester have three months to save the Bransford control room.

This newspaper will be at the forefront of this battle in the coming weeks.

We urge you to join the fight to keep this vital service local.