A special task group has been set up at Wiltshire County Council to examine the problems facing the Wiltshire Ambulance Service, which was recently awarded a zero star rating.

The task group was established by the county council's Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee to examine the ambulance service, and it will meet for the first time today at County Hall in Trowbridge.

The group has members from the county and district councils and will study the reported poor performance of the service, the reasons given for it, what can be done to remedy the situation and what suggestions they can make to help.

Coun Philip Allnatt, a member of the task group, said the issue of response times was very important, living in a rural area, and this would be looked into.

The role of First Responders and the resources available to the service will also be matters for discussion.

The first meeting will look at how the task group is going to conduct their review.

The Wiltshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust was awarded a zero rating recently because it failed to bring down its ambulance response times below the national requirement.

Acting chief executive Tim Skelton said significant improvements had been made over the past few months and the response to life threatening emergency calls in eight minutes -the national target - has risen from below 50 per cent in 2003 to 68 per cent.

The ratings relate to performance during the 12 months from April 2003 to March 2004.

The ambulance service highlighted other improvements over the year, including the first national patient survey, which showed that over 95 per cent of patients rated the care received from the Wiltshire Ambulance Service as excellent, very good or good.

Mr Skelton also highlighted investment in training and staff development and new policies to make sure the clinical quality of care continues to improve.

The ambulance service is also working with the Strategic Health Authority to look at the future of ambulance and emergency services.