PARISH councillors in Pewsey have refused to accept assurances from acting ambulance chief Tim Skelton that the village is getting a first class service.

Villagers in Pewsey have long been concerned at the time it takes for ambulances to arrive in response to 999 calls.

Their concerns were heightened earlier this year when the Gazette revealed that the Wiltshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust had told ambulance crews it would be concentrating on the built-up areas to get better average response times to meet government targets.

The parish council wrote to Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust and asked Devizes MP Michael Ancram to support their action.

In response the council received a reply from Tim Skelton, the acting chief executive of the ambulance trust.

Mr Skelton said: "The trust is now achieving a 90 per cent response rate to all emergencies across the county in 19 minutes.

"In January the trust met 58 per cent of life-threatening emergencies in eight minutes, an improvement of eight per cent on December.

"Two key themes to our continued performance improvement are new investment in ambulance crews and better utilisation of our existing crews.

"We are investing in a range of new schemes to provide extra cover, particularly in rural areas where sometimes it is difficult to meet response times.

"These schemes include voluntary neighbourhood responders, working with St John's and military personnel to provide responders and also investing further in a paramedic motorcycle responder scheme.

"In the next few months we will be also investing in community paramedics who will be based at minor injury units in GP surgeries in rural communities to improve response times in emergencies."

Mr Skelton said the trust had always endeavoured to deploy ambulance crews in a way which reflects the emergency demand across the county.

He added: "We are currently updating these plans based on more recent research which better matches the current patterns of activity with our available crews.

"Our aim is to improve performance for all the residents of Wiltshire both in rural and urban communities."

However, parish council chairman Alec Carder told the council last Tuesday: "I think we still have a problem.

"I think it is appalling that in rural areas like Pewsey we are on the back burner and we have to rely on voluntary responders."

Coun Carder said: "The principle is wrong that we have to rely on volunteers as first responders when it is the responsibility of the NHS to get an ambulance with paramedics to attend in an emergency."

Coun Harriet Fear-Davies wondered where the proposed community paramedics might be based.

Coun Anne Hayhoe said she had suggested in a meeting with ambulance chiefs that Pewsey should be one of the paramedic bases. But she added that she had been told that Pewsey was not being considered at that moment.

Coun Diane Hughes said Pewsey was potentially a good base because it was central for an area extending to Marlborough and Amesbury.

Coun Pat Keers suggested that paramedics could be based in the village fire station in North Street.

Coun Peter Deck was not reassured by statistics given by Mr Skelton. He asked: "It's great that 90 per cent get responded to in 19 minutes. But what if you are in the other ten per cent?"

Coun Colin Lampard pointed out that Pewsey used to have a Red Cross ambulance manned by volunteers. He commented: "Now they are trying to re-invent the wheel."

Coun Marilyn Day, chairman of the Pewsey Area Community Trust, said PACT, which represents 22 parishes, would also be making representations to the ambulance trust.