Ledbury and Brom-yard Ambulance stations could be closed by the spring under plans being considered by the Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Both are on a hit-list published by the public sector union UNISON, along with the Kington and Ross stations.

Yesterday (Thursday), trust spokesman Jenny Procter confirmed that the closure of both the stations was a possibility, in what the trust is describing as an efficiency drive.

But she stressed that the hit-list was from UNISON, not the trust itself, and added: "The trust has yet to confirm which ambulance stations will be closed. There will be no job losses and no vehicle losses."

The trust's director of services Frances Martin said: "In this instance we can be confident that the disposal of any premises will not have a detrimental effect on our services.

"Ambulance stations are effectively purely garaging facilities."

The trust, which has seen an eight per cent rise this year in the demand for its services, says it wishes to ensure that as much of its income as possible goes directly into patient care.

The closure of rural area stations like Ledbury and Bromyard would place greater reliance on ambulance deployment from 'standby points', where a crew waiting at any given location would be directed in by the computer system.

The trust says that this is already what happens with the majority of its 999 calls.

Ambulance technician and UNISON spokesman Andy Kibble said that shutting stations could save the trust £600,000 by March, the close of this financial year.

But Mr Kibble, who is based at Ledbury Station, accused the trust of going "straight for the family silver" in its plan to close stations.

He added that in particular, Ledbury needed to retain its station: "Ledbury is growing so fast that it needs a permanent station."

The station is home to an ambulance, paramedic vehicle and seven staff and its work includes response to accidents on the M50. Bromyard has two ambulances and nine staff.