PLANS to close Newent Ambulance Station have been attacked by town councillors.
Current response times were condemned as substandard and members were unconvinced that closing the station would improve them.
The council wants senior ambulance officers to attend a meeting in Newent, to which representatives from neighbouring parishes will also be invited.
They are also planning to invite Forest of Dean MP Mark Harper, who has already attacked the proposal.
Coun Peter Street said ambulance response times meeting the benchmark eight minutes were just 25 per cent, way off the national average.
He reported the case of a woman in her 80s in Cliffords Mesne who waited more than 40 minutes for an ambulance which came from Gloucester.
He cited another case in Cliffords Mesne when an ambulance from Cirencester got lost looking for the Yew Tree Inn.
"You can only live in Newent if you are well," said Coun Len Lawton.
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