CALLS for an ambulance to be based in the Tidworth community area have been reinforced with news that the ambulance trust is missing its performance target by miles.

Figures show that in the Amesbury area only 32 per cent of 999 calls are reached within eight minutes.

The Government target figure is 75 per cent.

Last month district councillor Peter Colling said: "We need to have an ambulance based in our community area, staffed by people who know this area and who can respond quickly."

Wiltshire Ambulance Service NHS trust lost its one star rating last year but its boss insists that measures are in hand to turn the situation around.

"We have a long way to go with our response times but things are already starting to get better," said acting chief executive, Tim Skelton.

"Firstly, we are increasing the number of relief staff to cover breaks, holidays, training and sickness.

"We are also looking at our first responder schemes with two to three motorcycles covering rural areas to reach emergencies quickly.

"We also want to use community paramedics who work from home and respond to calls in their communities.

"We are working with military responders and voluntary schemes such as St John Ambulance."

Part of the changes involve deploying staff most effectively thou-gh this has raised fears that rural areas could be neglected is resources are concentrated on urban areas.

New technology is also being deployed as part of the bid to improve performance.

The trust is one of the few in the country that doesn't have automatic vehicle location showing the exact position of crews at any one time.

Use of this technology should save valuable seconds and help the trust improve its response times.