I would like to bring to the attention of all Cumbria county councillors who will be involved in making decisions about possible 'trimming down' of the Fire and Rescue Service in South Cumbria the situation that arose on Friday, November 27.

In the early afternoon there was a multi-vehicle road collision on the M6 between junctions 36 and 37, with two very serious injuries resulting.

I know emergency services from Kendal were in attendance as I saw them leaving town to the incident.

Almost simultaneous with this incident there was another very serious vehicle collision at Mealbank on the A6, just a very short distance north out of Kendal requiring someone having to be cut free so fire and rescue services were on scene, I believe, for some considerable time.

In the light of such two incidents close to each other at virtually the same time questions have to be asked about any conceivable justification of closing 'peripheral' fire stations around South Lakeland, such as Staveley and Arnside.

I do not know from where appliances attended to each incident on that Friday, nor how long they took to get there from their first alert but what I do know is that the sooner rescue services can be on a scene, the greater the chance of casualty survival.

My guess is that the Staveley tender attended one of the incidents, probably the one on the A6 near Kendal.

If that tender is removed from service, then in circumstances like this tenders would have to be deployed from the next nearest main station - probably Penrith.

It doesn't take any great thought or reasoning to understand that this would take considerably longer than a South Lakes-based vehicle, hence there would be an indisputable increase in the risk to life.

I therefore ask that as many people as possible to lobby their local county councillor about this, and sign The Westmorland Gazette's petition.

Effectively councillors and recommending officers are suggesting putting finance before life.

Such moves are not acceptable. No amount of attempted blinding with figures and statistics can cover the medically known fact that longer attendance time to serious life-threatening incidents will equate to prolonged suffering for trapped casualties and greater mortality.

Councillors and officers - these are facts you cannot ignore.

Dr David Earnshaw

Ambleside