A FORMER chief ambulance officer has condemned the move to reduce the amount of ambulance stations across Hampshire to just three.

Last week the Hampshire Chronicle revealed that 16 Hampshire stations are facing closure by 2008, with stations in Winchester, Eastleigh and Hythe among those being axed.

Gordon Adams, 74, from Kings Worthy, was Chief Officer for nine years before retiring in 1991 after more than 40 years in the service.

He said: "I am dismayed that the service I was responsible for, that was one of the most respected services in the country for efficiency and high levels of training, has deteriorated to the reported levels.

"I appreciate that times have changed but I still believe that the way to deploy resources properly is to look at the centres of population and look at the amount of incidents that happen, and then decide where you put your ambulance stations."

Mr Adams said he was concerned that response times will be badly affected.

"Hampshire is part rural, and part urbanised, and the proposals for building large stations in the main urbanised areas will cause unnecessary delays in the rural areas," he said.

But ambulance chiefs have defended the proposals, arguing that crews will no longer be based at stations, but instead be placed at strategic points across the county, enabling them to meet target times to get to casualties.

However, the move has been criticised by union bosses and the chairman of Hampshire Ambulance Patient and Public Involvement Forum, David Atwell, has called for further assurances that response times will not be adversely affected by the plans.

Ambulance bosses have pledged to hold a series of meetings to "engage" the public in the plans in August, while staff are to be fully briefed over the next two months.