TODAY is your last chance to join our Keep It Local campaign and sign our petition calling for ambulance bosses to abandon their plans to close Worcester's emergency control room at Bransford.

Our petition closes at 5pm today. More than 2,000 local people have so far signed on the dotted line in protest at the West Midlands Ambulance Trust's bid to have just two control rooms.

Later this week we will publish the petition in full and then present it to the trust.

The trust says its proposed changes will help to save lives and create a call-handling system that will be more robust in the event of major incidents.

We fear a lack of local knowledge will hamper the service.

We fear centralising services in the north will leave our county exposed.

We fail to understand how having fewer call centres would help in the face of, for instance, a major terrorist attack.

And we fear the trust's proposal is more about saving money than saving lives.

Let us make it clear that we have huge admiration for the work of the ambulance service.

We simply do not believe the trust's management has got it right on this issue. Nor do we think that a "consultation" that involves just one proposal is particularly fair or inclusive.

We know well enough that the trust does not agree with us. Its spin doctors have made that clear.

Such is life. What matters to us more is that the people of Worcestershire think we are right.