This is my Friday night..
Here in full is the above ambulance worker's speech on 1st October, faithfully transcribed into typed words.
Note how he never says "I" only 'we'. (I've no clue if this could be considered as part of the official consultation with the emergency services but, its quite a good speech, and he read it from notes he'd bought.
"Good evening , My name is John Rice (?)
We are the emergency response for this area.
I would say firstly as a public body and a public service organisation we support any and all attempts to improve the health and wellbeing of all the members of the community that we serve.
But we are also a reactive emergency service and we attend patients in situations where a timely response is obviously critical.
The concerns that we have locally as an emergency service stem mainly from the Loughborough Junction Reform produced by the council which specifically states in section 3.8 that Emergency Response will have full access through the area.
Which is further reinforced again in the Q & A section saying that roads will remain open to emergency vehicles.
There have been numerous instances - I have got evidence here [
holds up document with photos on it] where that is not the case, they are physically blocked, and that is one concern.
Another concern is the increase in traffic which again restricts our movements around.
Local feedback from paramedics and other ambulance staff is that the road closures have resulted in greatly increased traffic around the Coldharbour Lane area and traffic is now being forced into small side streets
[inaudible few seconds] and is also being forced out into congested areas which are already congested.
The closure of Calais Street now forces emergency vehicles to take far longer routes through the area in & around Myatts Fields .
T
hat again, combined with the increased traffic on Coldharbour Lane , Brixton Road and Camberwell New Road, results in delayed responses to patients and members of the community in their hour of need. And that is of great concern to us.
We’d also say we are an employer in the area, a reasonable sized one, and we have a duty to our staff. Staff as I think someone has already mentioned have reported greatly increased times of work, sometimes double or even 3 times .
Unfortunately the amount of personal issue kit that some staff have to carry to work means that public transport, or cycling, is not an option.
We’re also concerned at the increase in pollution that we generate either or the way to work or whilst the ambulance is sat in the gridlocked traffic .
I’m really conscious of time …
Again we stress we are really committed to anything that makes the community better and improves the lives and the wellbeing of the community.
Locally we feel that
in order to protect the response to our patients, this current system of road closures is likely to cause delays in reaching ill members of the community who have called for our help.
We would instead of the current situation support less restrictive traffic calming measures such as speed cameras which allow vehicles to make progress whilst they do provide a more pedestrian and cycle friendly environment.
"
* the end.*
