A petition calling for a dedicated ambulance for Monmouth has been considered by the Welsh Assembly.

Mathew Davies handed more than 400 signatures to William Powell AM, chair of the Assembly's Petitions Committee, and committee member Bethan Jenkins AM at the Senedd yesterday (Tuesday 7th February).

Mr Davies' mum Jackie died in January 2011 after a number of service failings meant she waited more than 40 minutes for an ambulance.

At her inquest, assistant deputy coroner Wayne Griffiths said the delays may have contributed to Ms Davies' death.

The petition was launched at a public meeting, organised by Mr Davies, held at Bridges in January.

It called for a number of issues to be addressed. They were as follows;

• We believe that Monmouth should be granted the appropriate ambulance provision.

With its population set to rise, and the Minor Injuries Unit at Monnow Vale recently closed down, demand will increase for the ambulance service.

• We request the Health and Social Committee of the National Assembly to undertake a scrutiny inquiry into the ambulance service in rural Wales.

We would urge the committee to investigate the particular problems in Monmouth and the impact of the closure of the Monnow Vale Minor Injuries Unit on the ambulance service.

• We urge the Minister for Health and Social Care to use her powers to require the Wales NHS Ambulance Trust to provide a uniformly high standard of ambulance provision throughout Wales and especially rural areas such as Monmouthshire.

• We urge the Welsh Ambulance NHS Trust to increase provision for Monmouth in real terms, with a high dependency unit and/ or ambulance based within Monmouth town.

The Petitions Committee yesterday proposed to write to the Minister for Health and Social Services, to the ambulance trust and to the chair of the Assembly's Health and Social Care committee.

• The last medical officer of health for Monmouth, in a letter to the Beacon, has set out the reasons why he believes Monmouth needs a dedicated ambulance and station.

Dr MS Matharu OBE, a retired consultant in Public Health Medicine for Gwent Health Authority, said:

'I have been interested to note the comments made by a number of people in the Beacon with regard to the threatened removal of the ambulance station and the vehicle from the borough of Monmouth.

For the full report on this story, see this week's Beacon (8th February)