New Blackpool ambulance HQ will see four other bases close
PA MediaA plan to rebuild Blackpool's ambulance station will eventually see the closure of four other bases.
North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) is proposing to introduce a "hub and spoke" structure which it says will modernise the service.
It will see more focus on ambulances out on the move rather than sitting at stations, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
Stations in Fleetwood, Thornton, Lytham and Wesham would close as a result.
However, managers have promised those areas would continue to have "the same number of resources allocated to them as they do now".
A planning application has been submitted to Blackpool Council seeking to demolish the existing ambulance station in Waterloo Road, South Shore, and replace it with a new three-storey base.
This will act as the main Fylde hub, with crews elsewhere on the coast operating from satellite sites such as health centres, fire stations and police stations.
The model has already been adopted in other parts of the region after it was found ambulances are rarely at their station when they are despatched on a call.
Roger Jones, head of NWAS for Cumbria and Lancashire, said the system had been introduced in Wigan in 2017 with no negative impact on the service.
