Plans are in place to open a new ambulance station on Sheppey.

It is earmarked for the Transit Works in Power Station Road, Halfway, where space will be leased to house two response vehicles.

If agreed, it will lead to the closure of the station in Main Road, Queenborough.

SECAmb said the change of location was to meet “current, rather than historical” need.

It said the new response post would reduce the need for ambulance crews to park on standby at the roadside where no facilities were available to use between calls.

A statement said: “Many of the trust’s ambulance stations were built a long time ago – the populations surrounding them have changed.”

Sheppey is one of two new stations planned for Kent, the other being in Herne Bay.

Speaking of her delight at a new response post which has opened in Chichester, West Sussex, SECAmb operations manager, Lorna Stuart, said: “It’s important that crews not only have somewhere suitable to rest, but that place is right for our patients and for us to respond to the rising number of 999 calls each year.”

Rumours circulated earlier this year about the possible closure of Queenborough ambulance station.

If prompted a furious response, with former councillor Jackie Constable predicting its demise would have a “devastating” affect on the town.

Responding to the planned transfer of services to Halfway, she said: “The main access route to and from Sheppey is still better provided at Queenborough.

“The fact we’ve still got an ambulance station is good, but why move it when there’s no need?

“I can’t see the point when we already have a base which has better access for developments such as Thistle Hill and beyond.”