Minister to receive 999 petition

Mr Jetley said he has had 500 emails of support in three days

A former ambulance worker who resigned over proposals to close Shropshire's ambulance control centre takes his fight to Westminster on Wednesday.

Steve Jetley will meet health minister Ben Bradshaw and said he would present him with a 16,000-signature petition.

West Midlands Ambulance Service refused to consider the petition as it was done before the official consultation.

The trust wants to shut 999 control centres in Shrewsbury and Worcester and move staff to larger regional bases.

This is how much people care, they need their control centre in Shropshire, they need to know that they're safe Steve Jetley, ex-ambulance worker

Mr Jetley said he had received about 500 emails over the last three days supporting his campaign, which he plans to show the minister in a bid to get him to intervene.

"I'm going to tell him just how strong feeling is, I'm going to show him the petition with 16,000 names on it that Mr Marsh (West Midlands Ambulance Trust chief executive) so rudely ignored," he said.

"This is how much people care, they need their control centre in Shropshire, they need to know that they're safe, they don't want this proposal to be going through."

Mr Jetley claims lives will be put at risk if the plan goes ahead as local area knowledge will be lost.

The ambulance trust denied this and said the move would speed-up response times as it can get more out of staff and resources at larger centres.

Mr Jetley resigned after being suspended by the trust for allegedly leaking documents to the BBC.