A petition has been launched to save two local ambulance stations after West Midlands Ambulance Service named the stations as two of several it is putting under review.

Nub News reported previously how the service has named 10 stations, including the ones in Biddulph and Leek, as those with futures that are being reviewed.

The service says only 5% of the calls it receives are responded to from these 10 stations, which are located in Staffordshire as well as other areas of the West Midlands including Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire.

Now a petition has been launched to save the Biddulph and Leek stations, with almost 250 signatures being received at the time of writing.

The petition was launched by a change.org user named 'Concerned Person', who said that closing the stations would leave the people of Biddulph and Leek "vulnerable".

They explained: "West Midlands Ambulance Service are closing both Leek and Biddulph community ambulance stations, leaving the people of Leek, Biddulph and surrounding rural areas vulnerable due to vehicles having to respond from the city with an average run time of 20 minutes for Leek and even longer for the surrounding rural areas with potential running times in excess of 45 minutes.

"That is only if a vehicle is available, therefore putting the lives of people in these rural communities at risk of harm or even death.

"Leek community ambulance station provides emergency ambulance cover for Leek and the rural Peak District including many of its beauty spots, more so especially in the warmer weather as thousands of people descend to these areas from far and wide.

"West Midlands Ambulance service have already closed the Cheadle and Uttoxeter response posts and with the closing of Leek along with Biddulph community ambulance station this leaves a huge amount of rural territory with little or no emergency medical cover.

"With the loss of the rapid response paramedics and community first responders this puts the people in these rural areas at a greater risk of harm or worse.

"All the emergency medical staff, whether paramedics or technicians that currently run out of Leek and Biddulph, feel that the ambulance service will be failing the patients of these areas and those that live in the surrounding rural areas.

"The ambulance service made a promise to the people of Leek and Staffordshire Moorlands rural areas that when the rapid response paramedics were removed from the area there would always be an ambulance within the area to enable emergency medical cover.

"This promise has been clearly broken with the closure of this community ambulance station of Leek and the others already stated.

"Please lend your support to have not only Leek and Biddulph community ambulance stations reopened but those of Cheadle and Uttoxeter."

A spokesperson for West Midlands Ambulance Service said: "Ambulance crews are busy responding to one emergency after another and rarely, if ever, go back to the site except for shift changes and meal breaks.

"The ambulances based at the CAS sites are rarely there - only around 5% of the cases in the area are actually responded to by the ambulance based at the CAS site. The other 95% are responded to by ambulances that start and finish their shifts elsewhere."

If you would like to sign the petition please click here.