Opinion

At last you will be able to go out in the evening confident in the knowledge that you won't be returning with your clothes and hair stinking of smoke.

That's not to mention the even more serious damage that secondary smoke may have been doing to your health.

We're not ones to advocate banning things, but smoking doesn't just effect those who choose to do it.

For smokers too, there has never been a better incentive to finally kick the habit.

Anthony Marsh, the chief executive of the Ambulance Service Trust Board, tells us that closing the ambulance control centre at Bransford and moving the service to centres in Stafford and Brierley Hill will "significantly improve" the service to patients.

We find this assertion very hard to accept.

Mr Marsh says calls will be answered more quickly, but even if this were true, there is a risk that any benefit will be more than offset by delays which might result from a lack of local knowledge by operators.

In ambulance calls, every minute can be crucial. This looks like a cost-saving measure which will cost lives. A 13-week consultation begins on Monday. The consultation document can be read on www.wmas.nhs.uk, and views e-mailed to consultation@wmas.nhs.uk.