Monmouthshire councillors have called on executives from the Welsh Ambulance Service to appear at a scrutiny committee to answer questions on the proposed removal of the two rapid response vehicles (RRVs) from Monmouth and Chepstow ambulance stations.

Earlier this year, the ambulance service set out plans for a national roster review to be approved and implemented by Welsh Government in September.

It involves the centralisation of services within Aneurin Bevan health board area and will see both rapid response vehicles withdrawn, leaving just one emergency ambulance at each station.

In Thursday’s full council meeting, a motion led by the Conservatives called on ambulance bosses to appear before a cross party council committee for pre-decision scrutiny on the RRV proposals.

The motion was backed unanimously by councillors of all political groups.

The ambulance service is proposing to increase staffing and vehicles in the Aneurin Bevan health board area in centralised hubs in Newport and valleys communities, but Conservative councillors argued this isn’t good enough and that ambulances are needed here in Monmouthshire.

Cllr Richard John, Conservative Group Leader who brought the motion forward, said: “Every Monmouthshire resident should have confidence that paramedics, emergency ambulances and rapid response vehicles are standing by when a life threatening situation arises.

“These proposals from the ambulance service will centralise provision and worsen response times in Monmouthshire, which according to frontline clinicians will put lives at risk. The rapid response vehicles are vital because they can be mobilised more quickly than a normal ambulance, but are also available sooner to move on to another callout.

“There’s a lack of accountability in the Welsh NHS.

‘‘Health boards and trusts spend billions of pounds of NHS cash but are only accountable to the Labour health minister in Cardiff.

‘’Ambulance bosses have conceded that they haven’t even modelled the impact of these proposals specifically in Monmouthshire.

‘‘They need to come to a cross party committee in Monmouthshire and have their proposals scrutinised by Monmouthshire councillors.

‘‘I hope ambulance bosses will accept this invitation to answer questions on behalf of Monmouthshire residents.”

Jason Killens, chief executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “The Wales-wide roster review is a complex piece of work, and while we appreciate the continued concerns of the Monmouthshire community about what this means for provision in their area, the goal ultimately is to ensure that our finite resources are aligned to demand.

“Over the past few months, we have met with community representatives, both citizens and politicians, to outline our plans and listen and respond to their concerns.

“We have invited campaigners to visit one of our Clinical Contact Centres to demonstrate how we prioritise and dispatch 999 calls and have provided a detail written response to their questions. We have also offered to demonstrate the modelling we have undertaken to inform the review process.

“While we are happy to attend scrutiny committee, at this stage we have received no formal invitation to do so and were made aware of the request via the media.

‘‘We look forward to receiving communication from the scrutiny committee chair and to attending in due course.”