Pressure mounts on NWAS (Updated at 12.35pm)

Today's Chronicle carries extensive coverage of last Friday's march in Nantwich protesting about the reduction in the area's First Responder scheme. The newspaper, which has highlighted the ambulance issues in Audlem and Nantwich in recent months, says the more than 1,000 marchers made this the biggest demonstration in the town's living memory.

A petition has also been presented at 10 Downing Street by local people protesting at the cuts. Over 10,000 people, including many hundreds from Audlem, signed the petition, which was presented by Crewe & Nantwich MP Edward Timpson, Nantwich Town councillor Bill McGinnis, First Responder Gavin Palin and organisers of Friday's march.

The North West Ambulance Service is meeting the Cheshire Overview and Scrutiny Committee today to explain its plans, a process of consultation that should have taken months ago before any significant changes were implemented. Submissions to that meeting have been made by Audlem Parish Council and many other Town and Parish councils.

Yesterday's report on Audlem Online about another lengthy wait by an injured man for an ambulance highlights the fact that the problems with NWAS continue. This week's Chronicle includes a letter from a double amputee who had to wait eleven hours in his wheelchair for a pre-booked ambulance that never arrived and a taxi had to be used eventually. The man says that after two weeks of complaining and ten phone calls to NWAS, he has still not received an explanation or apology.

NWAS also took almost 24 hours to respond to yesterday's Audlem Online report despite being sent the story before publication and inviting them to provide for a statement. A statement has just been received (12.12pm) and yesterday's story has now been updated with the NWAS statement that confirms all the facts in the Audlem Online report.

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