A Monmouth woman has made an impassioned plea for the retention of Monmouth Ambulance Station after her husband suffered a severe stroke last Monday.

Describing the traumatic events of Monday night when her 69 year old husband Walter became "extremely poorly," Mrs Shirley Collins said it was immediately clear that he was in urgent need of help.

Her daughter, Mrs Christine Rush, phoned for an ambulance; a car arrived reasonably quickly and it was decided that Mr Collins needed to get to hospital as a matter or urgency.

"You can imagine my horror when time kept ticking by and it was over an hour before an ambulance arrived," said Mrs Collins. "Unbelievably, this ambulance had travelled all the way from the Valleys."

Whilst she and her daughter have nothing but praise for the paramedics, who were "brilliant", they are appalled by a suggestion that Monmouth Ambulance Station may close.

"If something doesn't change soon, lives will be lost. No one should have to wait that long for an ambulance, particularly when there is an ambulance station a couple of minutes away," said Mrs Collins.

"It's all very well the government saying they can't afford to keep it manned, people's lives are being put at risk."

Mr Collins was allowed to return to his home at Brook Estate on Wednesday but will need to return to Nevill Hall Hospital for further treatment.

Mrs Collins, who said she would be taking the matter up with Monmouth MP David Davies, added:

"I'm sure many of your readers will share my utter disappointment with the fact that Monmouth Ambulance Station is no longer manned.

"I hope other people will jump on the band wagon and fight to have the services we are entitled to re-instated."

Her plea follows an unprecedented number of complaints about the erosion of medical services in the town, and of poor emergency response times.

Last week a petition was handed in to the Beacon Office calling for the retention of medical services, such as special needs and pharmacies, and demanding that plans to amalgamate the fire and ambulance stations in the town be shelved.

The petition has been passed on to Ministers at the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff.

It states: "There should be no relocation of our emergency services that of ambulance and fire stations from their present site because of their geographical pivotal role to render assistance in emergencies and meet the criteria of the Medical Golden Hour".

Meanwhile Monmouth MP David Davies has secured a meeting with the Regional Director of the Welsh Ambulances Services NHS Trust to discuss failing emergency response times.

Mr Davies will meet with Grant Gordon to call for more investment and redeployment of vehicles in the area. It follows news this week that emergency response times in Monmouthshire are back down among the worst in Wales.

"One problem is that the majority of ambulances are located in the Newport area and if it is busy, people in Monmouthshire who need emergency help are waiting much longer than they should have to," said Mr Davies.

"I continue to receive complaints about poor ambulance response times from across the constituency and the fall in performance since April is proof the Trust must redouble its efforts to improve services in rural areas."

Figures recently released show only 56 per cent of ambulances in Wales are arriving within eight minutes, with about thirty per cent taking more than 15 minutes; the target is sixty per cent.

Plaid Cymru candidate for Monmouth, Jonathan Clark said "Once again the lives of the people of Monmouth are being put at risk due to the over centralisation of ambulance services across the former country of Gwent.

"It is clearly not acceptable that the ambulance service in Monmouth has consistently failed to meet the category A emergency (immediately life-threatening) response time target in Monmouthshire."