London Ambulance Service chiefs have expressed concerns about Islington Council's people friendy streets scheme. Corporate director, Mr Townsend, has outlined how public health benefits, like an increase in road safety and a reduction of air and noise pollution are “more pronounced if there are physical filters rather than only camera enforced filters”.“Physical measures are preferred because they have close to 100 per cent compliance, which we do not see at camera enforced closure points, as some cars will still drive through the filters even though it is only for emergency vehicle and sometimes bus access,” he said.“A physical closure is also more visibly legible to drivers, cyclists and pedestrians meaning that people walking and cycling are more protected from traffic and feel safer.” In this Covid-19 compliant centre, students will gain better experience listening to calls and role playing exercises to build confidence before they start to answering real patient calls.During the launch, Mr Khan met staff who helped respond to the outbreak of Covid-19 and thanked them for their dedication and commitment.Medics responding to emergencies during the coronavirus pandemic were supported by a loan of a mini fleet of vans to help deliver personal protective equipment (PPE) to the front line.After months of separation, London Ambulance Service medic Hina Pajwani has been reunited with her family just in time to spend their late father’s birthday together.Our hazardous area response team (HART) are specially-trained medics who provide lifesaving medical care in hazardo… Our charity is split into two. We provide emergency and urgent healthcare that is free to patients at the time they receive it. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joined LAS staff and volunteers for the unveiling of a plaque to formally launch the 999 centre which welcomed its first students in recent weeks. If you value what this story gives you, please consider supporting the Islington Gazette.

Click the link in the orange box above for details. London Ambulance Service NHS Trust then has 30 days to reply, by law. We are the busiest emergency ambulance service in the world to provide healthcare that is free to patients at the time they receive it. The service responds to 999 and 111 phone calls, providing triage and advice to enable an appropriate level of response.

Yet emails obtained from the council by the Gazette now reveal that both the London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade (LFB) still have concerns over the potential for increased response times, six weeks after the first scheme was introduced.At a zoom meeting just last week a LAS official pointed out to council staff that: “The chief coroner doesn’t look favourably on any delays from traffic management, and physical closures would cause delay, therefore cannot be supported.”The LAS NHS Trust has said they would “always push for all entry points to be camera enforced, until a resolution for locked bollards, gates or barriers is reached on a pan-London level”. He aslo saw new interactive facilities designed to simulate the challenging reality of 999 call handling at every step. “This is the only reason why we have had to include the use of removable bollards at some of the locations to ensure the wider scheme is workable,” they said.“Again, unfortunately it wouldn’t be possible to leave bollard closures unlocked as it would present a number of new rat-running issues in the residential areas,” they added.Similar sentiment has been echoed by LFB, which told the council they are “concerned that some changes to road layouts may impede our operational response”.Even though they have the keys, each bollard can add up to a two minute delay to their response – a third of the LFB’s six minute target attendance time for the first vehicle to arrive at each incident.To mitigate, the council notified Satnav operators like Google, Waze and Tom Tom of the changes before the “go-live” dates, so they could update their platforms.But the LFB does not use sat navs, relying instead on their own knowledge of the roads, and new routes have to be memorised.Although any route changes are communicated to staff in Islington, sometimes drivers from other boroughs are drafted in and may be unaware of them.LFB’s station commander from Upper Street told the council: “It is crucial for us to be able to maintain our arrival times as every minute delayed by a traffic restriction is a minute lost dealing with an emergency.“On an incident recently a fire appliance from Hackney which was attending an incident in Islington was delayed by about four minutes trying to remove a physical barrier (two removable bollards) which is not acceptable.”The council has however been responsive to many of the concerns flagged by emergency services and has removed bollards at Wharf Road - which is part of a commonly used route for teams in Islington and Shoreditch to cross into the St Peters area.This was previously the LFB’s “biggest concern” about road closures within the scheme.