AS ALL parts of the public sector prepare for the full scale of the coalition’s cuts to be revealed tomorrow it is bad news indeed that the Bransford ambulance call centre site remains on the market two years after it was closed.

The sale of the ambulance control centre was meant to bring in £650,000 for the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

The money was earmarked to improve the computer system at Brierley Hill in Dudley after the closure of Bransford.

The upgrade has happened despite the lack of interest in the site after money was found ‘elsewhere’ in the trust’s budget.

It never ceases to amaze how public bodies can so often find some more of our money when they need to.

But that is by the by.

Regular readers will remember this newspaper campaigned long and hard against the Bransford closure, with more than 2,000 local people signing our petition against the trust’s plans.

With that battle lost, the least the people of Worcestershire could have hoped for was the promised sale of the Bransford site swelling the ambulance service’s coffers.

Yet the asking price for the site has now been reduced to £400,000 although negotiations are said to be under way with potential buyers.

Ambulance service bosses cannot be held responsible for the recession and the ensuing property price crash.

But the sale price was an integral part of the consultation document proposing closure of the Bransford site.

We wonder whether more could have been done behind the scenes to seek out potential buyers in the run-up to the closure of the call centre.