The latest emergency ambulance response times have been cautiously welcomed by Monmouth's MP, while the town's AM says his meeting with the ambulance service was a 'productive' one.

Under a new system of measuring performance, figures show emergency ambulance response times in Monmouthshire have improved.

In February, Monmouthshire was the 10th best performing of Wales' 22 council areas with 62.3 per cent of emergency calls answered inside eight minutes. Although missing the all-Wales target of 65 per cent, the statistics confirm improvements have been made.

In December 2011, just 54.4 per cent of emergency responses in Monmouthshire to Category A (immediately life-threatening) calls arrived at the scene within eight minutes.

While David Davies MP described the results as "encouraging", he warned changes to the ambulance service in Wales means the figures are not directly comparable with previous data and it may be several months before the "true picture" is revealed.

For the full report on this story, see this week's Beacon (18th April)