£14.2m West Midlands ambulance hub planned for Shrewsbury

West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) is planning to build the modern facility at Emstrey Bank, just off the A5 in Shrewsbury, to serve Shropshire for the next 30 years.

The purpose-built hub will replace the current Longden Road site and will feature expanded fleet maintenance, 'make ready' areas, improved training facilities, and better staff accommodation.

The planning application is expected to be submitted to Shropshire County Council in the next few weeks.

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Craig Cooke, operational support services director at WMAS, said: "This is a real step change in the provision we are providing for the community in Shropshire with a significant development that will meet the needs of local people for years to come.

"We acknowledged some time ago that we needed to move from our current site, but such a large-scale development does take time, not just finding the right location, but also the funding for it."

“The site meets the latest planning requirements with a BREEAM Excellent Rating which looks at the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of buildings.

"The site will be fully electric vehicle enabled for the future as well.”

Will Gould, senior operations manager for Shropshire, said staff are 'very excited about the move'.

He said: "It will be a considerable upgrade on what we have at the moment with better facilities as well as better resilience.

"From a public perspective, it will give us an excellent point with which to access the road network in Shropshire which can only help us get to patients more quickly than we do currently.

“It obviously means that we will no longer be in a residential area which I am sure will also be popular with local people.”