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Written by Administrator
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Wednesday, 16 July 2008 06:40 |
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What a saga! Back in 1994 the ambulances were homeless, sited in the road in Midcroft, off Ruislip High Street, waiting for calls with no facilities at all for the crews. There were petitions and counter petitions about building an ambulance station in the Pavilion in Kings College Road. That Battle was won by the opposition.
 For a time ambulances were based at Winston Churchill Hall Ruislip, with crews waiting for calls in unsatisfactory upstairs accommodation. Then on to a temporary home at Mount Vernon Hospital. Now, still temporarily, they use the old Northwood & Pinner Community Hospital in Northwood Hills – it is warm and dry there, with basic facilities for the crews, but too far north to be ideal.
By 2006 an ambulance station site was identified behind shops in Pembroke Road, near the Ruislip Manor traffic lights but now, two years later, there is still no sign of building activity.
Our enquiries indicate that Transport for London, head leaseholder of the site, is blocking progress, despite planning permission for an ambulance station being agreed with Hillingdon Council. So we have written to the Deputy Mayor of London, Richard Barnes, to ask for his help to resolve this long-standing problem.
The only good news is that current ambulance response times are satisfactory, despite the lack of a purpose-built ambulances station. This is a credit to the crews of course, but they deserve a permanent, purpose-built home. We shall continue to press for this. Their fourteen years wait is already far too long!
Joan
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