Prospective Conservative MP for Brigg and local Councillors Carl Sherwood and Nigel Sherwood have slammed proposals by the East Midlands Ambulance Trust to axe the Ambulance in Brigg and replace it with fast response cars instead. The proposals are also being opposed by Brigg Town Council and have been criticised by local doctors.

Councillor Nigel Sherwood explains, “We became aware of rumours regarding the future of the ambulance recently and immediately wrote to the Ambulance Trust seeking assurances about the future of the ambulance.

We are therefore totally shocked to discover that those rumours have turned out to be correct and that Brigg will now lose its only ambulance. Residents will recall that up until a few years Brigg had its own Ambulance Station, and we are now seeing a further reduction in the cover offered to local residents.

If these changes go ahead there will be no vehicle based in Brigg with a stretcher on board and my concern, which is shared by local doctors, is that this change is being driven more by Government targets on response times that it is patient care.”

Prospective Brigg MP Andrew Percy adds, “The Ambulance Trust have explained that these changes are being proposed as a result of Government reviews. Residents quite rightly want to know that when they ring for an ambulance, there will be one available locally.

"I also agree very strongly with the comments of Brigg Town Council who have criticised the lack of consultation over these proposals. The East Midlands Ambulance Trust do not even mention the changes on their own website.”

Cllr Carl Sherwood adds, “Nobody would object to the use of the fast response vehicles so long as the local Ambulance was retained too. Sadly, this is not the case and that is why it is important we do all we can to fight to keep our local Ambulance here in Brigg.”

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Prospective Brigg & Goole MP Andrew Percy this week expressed concern about official figures which have revealed not only a growing number of under-age drinkers are being admitted to hospital, but also that the laws against under-age drinking are not being properly enforced. This disturbing news coincides with the report from Crime Concern which has found that “drinking to get drunk is starting younger with serious consequences to health and crime”. Almost four in ten young people now start drinking at the age of 13, and half of their parents turning a blind eye.

• Figures – unearthed by the Conservatives in Parliament – reveal that under-age children who break the law by buying alcohol illegally are not being held to account. Fewer than a hundred individuals a year are punished for trying to buy alcohol illegally.

• In the Humberside Polce area just two under 18s were proceeded against in the magistrates courts for purchasing alcohol illegally between 2004-06 (most recent figures available). Worse still not a single teenager under 18 was cautioned for buying alcohol illegally during that time. In 2006 just 2 penalty notices for disorder were issued to young people in Humberside for the illegal purchasing of alcohol. 
   
• What is more, a growing number of children are now being hospitalised after being admitted to A&E due to alcohol misuse, with 860 incidents across the Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority last year. Across the country a whole, there has been an increase of 40 per cent since 2000.

Prospective MP Andrew Percy says: “Far from making it more difficult for young people to get hold of alcohol, this Government has made it easier by introducing 24 hour off-licences. Labour’s new legislation, which was introduced in 2003 and supported by our current Labour MP, makes it possible for off-licences to apply to sell alcohol round the clock and actually excludes all but a handful of residents who live within a couple of hundred yards of a premise from objecting to the licence for a late bar or off-licence.

Young people getting hold of alcohol is a really serous issue and one which as a school teacher I know is getting worse. Most of our young people are responsible individuals but we need to accept that we have a growing minority of teenagers for whom getting drunk on the street is all part of a normal Friday or Saturday night. I find that incredibly sad as it not only causes problems for local residents it also means that we have a number of young people who are condemned to failure well before their lives have really started.”