AMBULANCE call takers in Worcester have vowed to fight plans with a vengeance to shut the city's call centre.

Staff claim lives will be put at risk and local jobs will be lost if West Midlands Ambulance Services NHS Trust goes ahead with its proposals to shut the Bransford Emergency Operations Centre.

Matthew Jones has been a call taker for 13 months at Bransford and says staff are outraged.

"The trust claims that there will be no redundancies and that staff will be supported if they wish to transfer or take up new roles within the trust," he said.

"However, this is just not good enough. There are inevitably going to be people who are not prepared, or are unable, to transfer because of the distance they would have to travel and eventually this will mean that there will be very few, or no call takers from Hereford and Worcester employed."

The trust wants to close the Bransford centre, along with one in Shropshire, and create two larger regional centres, at Brierley Hill and Stafford, with a support centre at Leamington Spa.

It says the reconfiguration would provide a better, more co-ordinated approach for the public and would improve safety, not hinder it.

However, Mr Jones, of Monarch Drive, Worcester, said staff did not agree.

"Over the past week we have been dealing with one of the toughest tasks yet - flooding," he said.

"We have been having to re-plan the routes of ambulances, where sat navs are taking the crews one way and we are having to advise them to go another way.

"Something that if the centre is moved to Brierley Hill we will not have the time to do."

Mr Jones said the local knowledge of staff had helped to co-ordinate the flooding response.

However, he said it was not only the loss of local knowledge that was an issue in their campaign.

"The current control room is small and this is deemed as a weakness," he said.

"However, the fact that the control room is small is its greatest assess as it is organised and well run, with everyone knowing what is going on."

Trust chief executive Anthony Marsh said: "I fully acknowledge that this is a very difficult time for the staff directly affected, but let us also be clear that this is about improving services.

"We will provide every support we can to staff during the process; we count their views as some of the most important.

"We have also given a commitment that once the board takes its decision on Tuesday, October 9, we will move forward as quickly as possible so as to minimise the time of uncertainty for staff."

The Worcester News's Save Our Ambulance petition has already received 440 names. People can send their comments on the proposals to West Midlands Ambulance Service headquarters, EOC reconfiguration consultation, Millennium Point, Waterfront Business Park, Brierley Hill, Dudley, West Midlands DY5 1LX, or by e-mail to consultation@ wmas.nhs.uk