A petition has been launched to safeguard Narberth's life saving Co-responder Service.

The service is an emergency vehicle manned by trained firefighters which provides a rapid response to 999 calls. In rural areas the Co-responders often preserve lives until the arrival of a fully equipped ambulance.

But the Welsh Ambulance Service, which decides when to call out the Co-responder service and also pays for them, stopped using the Narberth unit last summer.

Whilst they are now gradually starting to re-use the vital scheme, South Pembrokeshire MP Simon Hart is supporting local campaigner Di Clements, in calling for the service to be safeguarded.

"This is a vitally important service that must be fully used," said Mr Hart. "I was contacted by a local hairdresser who had to wait 25 minutes for an ambulance in September after a member of staff collapsed. She lay unconscious on their floor for 10 minutes but the emergency services told them no ambulance was immediately available.

"The Co-responder could have got there within minutes, saving the staff members a lot of stress and helping the casualty a lot more quickly.

"While the Ambulance Service does a brilliant job, those few extra minutes it can take for a fully equipped ambulance to reach an emergency can literally be the difference between life and death – if a Co-responder car can get there with oxygen and a defibrillator more quickly, especially to remote rural areas, then we should be making full use of this service."

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that between May and October Narberth's Co-responder car was called out 77 times in 2009 and 53 times in 2010.

However, in 2011 it was called out just 11 times in the same period; six times in May, three times in June, twice in July and then there were no call outs at all between August and mid October.

The figures also show that between August 2010 and August 2011 38% of ambulances called out to life-threatening situations did not get there within the target of eight minutes.

Mrs Clements added: "I know that we live in a rural area and we must accept that ambulances are going to take longer to reach us, but that is why schemes such as the Co-responder and community first responders are so vital and must be safeguarded."

Mrs Clements has now delivered a petition around the town and has so far collected hundreds of signatures. Similar petitions are circulating in Crymych and Newcastle Emlyn where residents also want to maintain the use of their local Co-responder units.

"All these signatures will be passed on to Mid and West Wales Fire Service and we hope that the Welsh Ambulance Trust will realise how highly we value this vital service," added Mrs Clements.