Plans submitted for temporary ambulance station in Blackpool
It will be in operation until the new hub opens in autumn 2022
Plans for a temporary ambulance station have been submitted to Blackpool Council in order to maintain emergency services while a new permanent hub for paramedics is built.
A single storey structure is set to be provided on the site of the former Devonshire Road Hospital in North Shore, and is expected to be in use until at least autumn 2022.
It would operate while the current outdated base on Waterloo Road in South Shore, which was built in 1980, is demolished and replaced with a new three storey facility.
Planning permission for that development, which will facilitate a future ‘hub and spoke’ ambulance service, was granted in June.
Documents submitted by North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) for the temporary station say: “Hence during the demolition and construction period a temporary decant village is needed to provide emergency ambulance services.”
The temporary accommodation would contain offices, refreshment facilities, training and meeting rooms and locker and changing facilities.
The site has extensive parking for emergency and transport ambulances, rapid response vehicles and staff parking.
A one way system is proposed with vehicle access from Coleridge Road and exit from the existing access point on Devonshire Road.
Work on the new ambulance station is expected to begin this autumn and take around a year to complete.
NWAS says the ‘hub and spoke’ structure will modernise the service, but it will also mean the eventual closure of ambulance stations in Fleetwood, Thornton, Lytham and Wesham.
In the longer term the Devonshire Road site, which was bought by Blackpool Council last year, is earmarked for the relocation of the town’s courthouse to make way for the £300m Blackpool Central leisure development.