WORCESTER News readers have been adding their support to our campaign to save the county's ambulance control centre.

Yesterday we launched a petition aimed at stopping West Midlands Ambulance Trust closing the Emergency Operations Centres at Bransford.

The trust wants to close two centres - the other is in Shrewsbury - and replace them with regional control centres in Brierley Hill and Stafford, and a support centre at Leamington Spa.

The move has been met with widespread condemnation.

Union leaders say they fear hundreds of lives will be put at risk if the plan goes ahead.

Andy Kibble, branch secretary for union Unison, said staff at the two regional control centres would lack crucial local knowledge to deal with calls quickly.

"This could seriously endanger lives," he said.

"All our staff know the area extremely well - they live in the two counties."

On Monday the board of West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust voted to begin consultation on its plans. The trust says staff from Bransford will be offered the chance to transfer to one of the other centres where they will still be able to work as a team, dispatching to Hereford and Worcester, thereby retaining local knowledge.

But staff say not all members will want, or be able to transfer, and eventually there will be no call takers from the two counties. Yesterday readers leapt at the chance to sign our petition.

Among them was Maggie Taylor, of Severn Stoke, who said: "Local knowledge is vital. Lives will be at risk if this excellent control centre is closed. Are the powers that be totally insane? Why reinvent the wheel?"

And Helen Vale, of St John's, Worcester, said: "I think it would be a good idea to keep the control room based locally as the work and speed and expertise these people have is priceless when you are talking about people's lives."

The consultation period begins on Monday and will run until October 1.