Emergency services in Great Yarmouth have teamed up to provide even quicker response times for ambulance crews.

A new ambulance post has been launched at the town’s fire station in Friars Lane.

It sees the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust have a rapid response vehicle permanently based at the fire station and also a double staffed ambulance whenever possible to improve responses to patients in the Yarmouth area.

The trust has an ambulance depot in Gorleston and says the new added location will mean ambulances will be able to reach the Southtown, Cobholm and Bradwell areas faster than where they were previously based.

The hook-up follows similar arrangements in Lowestoft and Norwich between the trust and Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service.

Mark Little, duty locality officer for the ambulance trust, said: “From the location of the fire station we will be able to access a wider part of Great Yarmouth quicker because of the road network as well as making responses quicker to the other side of the River Yare into Southtown, Cobholm and Bradwell.

“It is important that as a trust we strategically place our response posts as effectively as possible.

“Staff have been very supportive of the move to the fire station as they can see the benefits of the location of the site and are looking forward to co-sharing with fire service colleagues.

“We have a very successful partnership with the fire service in sharing of facilities in other areas such as Lowestoft and Norwich.”

Simon Mason, station manager from Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, said: “We are pleased to welcome our ambulance service colleagues into Great Yarmouth.

“This is an excellent opportunity to increase our joint working and will bring about increased benefits through closer links between our services and will ultimately benefit the community that we serve.”

Previous collaborative approaches had seen the fire service deployed as community first responders at the same time as the ambulance service in 2016.

It involved fire stations in Great Yarmouth, Gorleston, King’s Lynn, Norwich, North Walsham, Sheringham and Thetford.