Two Goodbyes

The front pages of the national papers today are all plastered with Tony Blair's valedictory speech to Labour Party conference.

The local daily paper in Cumbria has the even larger headline "Ambulance HQ faces axe" about proposals to take away Cumbria's 999 response centre and deal with 999 calls from the county at the call centre in Lancashire.

If you were to ask residents of Cumbria which departure they will regret more - Tony Blair or our own 999 response unit - I bet I can guess which would get most votes.

As an incomer who has now been here two years I can attest that it takes a while to learn and understand the routes around Cumbria, where places are, and how some of the place names are pronounced, even if you are living here. I think that there is a good case that having emergency calls answered by Cumbrians will sometimes facilitate a quicker and more effective response - and time can save lives. This issue applies to both ambulances and fire engines, about which a similar debate is taking place.

Comments

Anonymous said…
This is farcical, I've lived in Cumbria most of my life and spent years driving a delivery lorry round south Cumbria. I wouldn't be able to do this, how is someone from Lancashire who has no experience going to be able to do it where will the local knowledge of which roads aren't suitable come from?
1:16 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
Exactly right Morning Star.
9:29 am
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