Grange ambulance station searches for new home

North West Ambulance Service has served Grange with one ambulance from a building on Kents Bank Road, leased from and adjacent to grocers Fletchers, for 20 years.

But the business is now reclaiming the site for its own use.

The NWAS, backed by this paper, is searching for a new home in the town and is calling on the public to 'Save our station'.

NWAS sector manager Rick Shaw said: "The Grange station is a small one with only one 24-hour emergency ambulance but it is a part of the community and our records show that the town does need its own ambulance base.

"Our estates team has been busy looking for alternative sites, with help from the council and property agents, but so far, nothing suitable has come available and when it does, it is snapped up quickly.

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"We want to stay in the town and so we're appealing to the community to help us - do you know of a site we could either lease or purchase? If so, get in touch."

Unless NWAS can move into another suitable base in town by March, the nearest ambulance base would be in Kendal.

This would be disastrous for the area, according to Independent South Lakeland District Councillor for Grange, Fiona Hanlon.

"Fletchers, one of Grange's local treasures, has housed our ambulance station in Grange for over 20 years free of charge," she said.

"North West Ambulance Service was supposed to be re-housed in the new large Grange Surgery built at Berners but this didn't happen.

"We can't afford to lose this vital local ambulance.

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"We have a significant elderly population in Cartmel Peninsula and, although our First Responders are wonderful, a drive to provide emergency care from other ambulance stations would add hours to patients receiving emergency treatment.

"We are hoping that NWAS will investigate alternative locations in Grange, including the surgery as first planned.

"We have a fire station and accommodation at Station Yard.

"Fletchers deserves the thanks of the community for stepping in to house the ambulance free for so many years.

"It's time for those responsible for providing emergency care to step up for Grange and the peninsula now too."

Fiona Hanlon at Grange ambulance station

Due to the high volume of calls received by the ambulance service, ambulances are rarely dispatched from the stations apart from the start of their shifts and so the requirements for a site are fairly basic.

NWAS said the type of property required needs to be accessible 24 hours and able to house a kitchen, bathroom and small office, with parking for one ambulance and a small number of cars for staff. The trust is willing to invest further by undertaking any necessary refurbishments to make it a comfortable base where staff can have their breaks and complete any online training they need.

The trust is also interested to hear from people who may know of a plot of land the trust can rent as it may be possible to install temporary accommodation on there with the right permissions.

"We need to find a new site by the end of this year by the very latest, as we need to vacate the current property by March," said Mr Shaw.

"While ambulances from outside the town also respond to patients here, the Grange ambulance is a valuable resource that plays a huge part in maintaining our presence in a small community and it would present us with some challenges if we had to go further afield for a station site, or remove the resource completely.

"We're hoping somebody local will know of a vacant property or plot of land not on the market or are planning to sell themselves and would consider us."

If you can help, contact estates.helpdesk@nwas.nhs.uk.

Fletchers was contacted but did not reply by the time we went to press.