Temporary ambulance hub to be built on hospital site while old station is demolished

A planning application for the new three-storey ambulance station, submitted by the North West Ambulance Service, was approved by Blackpool Council in June.

It means the current station on Waterloo Road in South Shore, which was built in 1980, will be demolished and replaced with a new facility which NWAS says will modernise the service - but will also lead to the eventual closure of ambulance stations in Fleetwood, Thornton, Lytham and Wesham.

READ: Go ahead for new Blackpool ambulance stationThe service also submitted plans for the erection of a single storey ambulance hub, with associated parking and refuse storage, on the Devonshire Road site for a temporary period of 60 weeks while the Waterloo Road development is underway.

Approving the application last week, town planners said the Local Planning Authority had tried to 'secure a sustainable development that would improve the economic, social and environmental conditions of Blackpool'.

The temporary station will comprise a 392 sq.m. single storey building including offices, refreshment facilities, training and meeting room, locker and changing facilities and a storeroom. Vehicular access will be from Coleridge Road, exiting onto Devonshire Road, with 63 staff parking spaces and parking for 19 operational vehicles sited off the central road.

The development will be built on vacant land over a predicted nine week period, with operating hours being 8AM to 5PM Monday to Friday, with occasional 8AM to 12PM shifts on Saturday mornings.

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