Nantwich’s medical emergency technician fears he has come to the end of his battle to have his ability to respond on blue lights restored.
Gavin Palin told town councillors he has reached a stalemate in his fight with North West Ambulance Service, who withdrew his ability to respond to emergencies under blue lights.
Now councillors who have backed him are considering a higher level approach to politicians including local MP Connor Naismith and even Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Mr Palin has volunteered as a community responder medic for almost 25 years, regularly answering life-threatening calls in the Nantwich area.
But despite that experience, NWAS stopped him in 2024 from using blue lights, saying new legislation dictated he should have undertaken more ambulance trust training.
Mr Palin insisted he has completed all the training with NWAS, but the service said it stood by its judgement.
It’s the second time the service has stopped him from responding on blue lights.
It happened back in 2008, which prompted 1,000 people to march through Nantwich in protest and a petition given to Downing Street by former MP Edward Timpson and the council.
NWAS reinstated the permission to him as a honorary member of staff two years later.
But now, a more than a year on since this latest decision, Mr Palin said they are no further forward in resolving the dispute.
He added: “I do feel I’ve reached the end of the road in this battle on what I can do and where I can go.
“I thought maybe speaking to the MP and discuss the matter. I need everyone to be aware of the implications of the blue lights being removed.”
Town council clerk Samantha Roberts asked for councillors’ views as they were “running out of options”.
Cllr Caroline Kirkham said: “There are examples of other ambulance trusts that use responders like Gavin and they have blue lights, such as London Ambulance Service.
“If one trust can do it, surely it’s not tied into legislation? I’m very passionate about this and we need to have our MPs support us on this.
“The impact that this is having…if someone is having a cardiac arrest, minutes matter. We still need to keep going on put pressure on, bearing in mind that Gavin does this voluntarily.”
Cllr Geoff Smith said he was willing to talk to MP Connor Naismith to clarify what he could do.
Mr Palin said his discussions with NWAS had been “completely exhausted” and that moves needed to be made higher up.
This is a joke, he’s a first responder and a really good one, very experienced, he is also a fireman, so is very adept at driving with blue lights.
Is this another case of health and safety gone mad or are they just completely stupid.
This shouldn’t even be a thing, let him drive with blue lights like he should be doing