One south west patient was left waiting for seven and a half hours in an ambulance because A&E at one hospital was full, new figures have shown.

Labour says hundreds of thousands of patients in need of emergency care are being left at the doors of A&E in ambulances because hospitals are full to bursting.

New figures obtained by the party show that last year almost 300,000 patients in England were caught in queues of ambulances outside emergency departments.

In 2013/14, 279,207 ambulances were delayed for more than 30 minutes and a further 30,601 faced waits longer than one hour, a Labour said.

Freedom of Information requests conducted on all 10 ambulance trusts in England also revealed that some patients were forced to wait in these queues for hours on end.

A patient in the West Midlands was forced to wait for eight hours and 11 minutes, the party found. Another in the South West waited for seven and a half hours.

Labour said that the "handover delays" occur when ambulance crews cannot transfer a patient to the A&E department because of staff or bed shortages.

Labour's shadow health minister Jamie Reed said: "Under David Cameron, hospitals are full to bursting and he's forcing ambulances to queue at the doors for hours on end.

"Thousands of vulnerable people, many of them elderly and frightened, are being wrongly held in the backs of ambulances because hospitals don't have the space. And yet ministers deny that A&E is in crisis.

"People know from their own experience that the NHS is heading downhill on David Cameron's watch. It is clear the Tories can't be trusted with it."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "People rely on ambulances coming quickly in life and death situations and long handovers are completely unacceptable.

"We're already making good progress in reducing the number of patients waiting for 30 minutes or longer – down by almost a third last winter – though there's always more the NHS can do.

"We are providing extra support, including £28 million for ambulances from funds already given to the NHS this year, to keep services sustainable year-round. In the long-term, we want to reduce demand by looking after people better in the community."

An NHS England spokeswoman said: "The figures published for the winter of 2013/14 show that the number of ambulance handover delays were actually down on the previous year by 30%.

"We know that demands on ambulances are rising every year, and we're allocating a further £28 million to ambulance providers to help them deal with these pressures.

"However in some cases it may be the right thing to do for a patient to be cared for in the ambulance before transfer to stabilise their condition.

"One of the aims of our Urgent and Emergency Care Review is to capitalise on the skills and abilities of paramedics and the wider workforce so that ambulances can become more of a mobile treatment service, rather than just a transport service."

Police chiefs are calling for feedback on the controversial 101 non emergency telephone number.

Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Hogg has launched a review of the 101 service amid ongoing concerns about the effectiveness of the system.

The phone line has become increasingly important as the force has slashed the number of front counters at police stations that are open to the public.

But while praising staff for their efforts, Mr Hogg has previously said that "101 in general is not working". His criticism and ongoing review has set him on a potential collision course with Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer and staff.

Mr Hogg is now asking for the public's opinion on the service which, he said, was a "regular topic" for people contacting his office.

"In the vast majority of cases the issue is not the speed at which the initial call is answered or in the response provided by call handlers, who I know are totally committed to delivering a good service, but rather frustration at the difficulty of getting through to someone who can take the necessary action," he said.

"Given this evidence there seems to be a disparity between what the public and the force are saying about 101 and, as the public's representative, it is right that I do all I can to find out what the true picture is."

Some 2,000 calls a day are made to the non-emergency number by people reporting crime or trying to get in touch with officers.

Many of the calls do not related to policing and should be being made to other services, including health and local councils.

Earlier this year, it emerged that hundreds of people a month were hanging up the phone before their calls to 101 were answered.

Figures showed an average 250 calls a month, between June 2013 and March 2014, were abandoned.

The review is being led by Karen Vincent, the performance and customer service manager within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, in collaboration with the force.

It is gathering evidence from a number of sources including listening to live calls and a mystery shopping exercise.

Mr Hogg, who recently revealed that he often acts himself as a mystery shopper to test the service, added: "I promised to hold this review in my police and crime plan and I am confident that, whatever its findings, I will be able to work with Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer to agree any changes it recommends to improve the service."

Guernsey 8 Cornish Pirates 62

After a week-long pre-season training camp, the Cornish Pirates completed their tour to Guernsey with a comfortable 62-8 win against the home side at Garenne Stand, writes Dick Straughan.

In a fixture played over three 30 minute sessions the Pirates handed first starts to ten of their new recruits including local boy George Collenette.

After a tight first session in which the Pirates led the National League 3 London & SE side 5-3 they eased into a 36-3 lead after an hour before adding another 26 points in the final third.

This weekend the Cornish side are in action at the Mennaye Field when they play Rosslyn Park (3pm).

Cornish Pirates: Holland, Jones, Riley, James, Moyle, Hallett, Kessell; P.Andrew, Channon, Jamieson, Garratt, Barry, Morgan (capt), Cheesman, Duncan
Replacements:- Ford-Robinson, Gendall, Tyack, Carpenter, Williams, Graulich, Parker, Bolwell, Lowry, Atkinson, Marland, Dancer, Goss, Evans, Snook, Collenette
Cattle, Paver

Referee – M Carley (RFU)

A RETIRED schoolteacher has branded a bus shelter being built in a village square as the "most dangerous in the UK".

Work began on the shelter at Probus a fortnight ago, but before it has even been finished, Dennis Keam, of Wagg Lane, told the West Briton: "I am calling it the most dangerous bus shelter in the UK.

"I have just been to the square and seen it. It is going to go down in the annals of history as the most dangerous bus shelter ever erected.

"A double-decker bus or long bus is going to be out across the down carriageway on a blind bend so cars overtaking it will be on the wrong side of the road. I can guarantee cars coming up around on the blind bend will not see them.

"There are certain to be accidents – it's horrendous. I never realised it was going to be horrendous as this."

Residents initially opposed the proposal for a new bus shelter, prompting Cornwall Council officers to go back to the drawing board, revising the plans to reflect the historical context of the village.

Mr Keam said it would be safer for the bus shelter to be built alongside the village's Indian restaurant, but Adam O'Neill, from Cornwall Council contractor Cormac, had told him it that to do this would cost too much.

"He said it would involve moving a telegraph pole and that it would be too expensive," he said. "Money would appear to be more important than human life."

Bob Egerton, Cornwall Council member for Probus, said: "We've been round and round the houses during public consultation on this and the final decision signed off by the officers was that it was perfectly safe and they were happy with it.

"There's no reason to think there's any problem with the bus shelter, but some people think there is.

"I've never known a bus shelter to create a hazard," he said. "It would be quite unique if a bus shelter became a health a safety issue but we will keep an eye on it."

CORNWALL Council has defended itself against claims that it has the highest number of employees earning over £100,000 in the south west saying that the figures quoted are out of date.

The TaxPayers' Alliance published research this week which claimed that 12 staff at County Hall in Truro receive remuneration of above £100k. However, the figures quoted are for the financial year 2012-13. Cornwall Council said that since then it has undergone a substantial management restructure which has seen the number of staff earning above £100k cut by half.

Value

Cornwall Council chief executive Andrew Kerr said: "Cornwall Council is committed to delivering value for money for council tax payers and is currently in the middle of a radical shake up of its management structure. The figures quoted by the TaxPayers Alliance relate to a period well over a year ago.

"Over the past six months we have reduced the number of corporate directors from six to three, and last month the number of heads of service was reduced from 23 to 15 – a reduction of eight posts. The salary band for the new chief executive was also reduced by 12 per cent. As a result of these changes the number of staff with salary levels above £100,000 has now fallen to six. This is resulting in estimated savings of around £1.2m which will help the authority to deliver services in different ways in the future and protect frontline services. The heads of service will now be working on the detailed design of their services with their corporate director. This process, which will deliver further management and staffing savings, is expected to be completed by the autumn.

"Tycoons"

"The council is one of the largest unitary councils in England with an annual budget of £1.2 billion delivering more than 700 services to local people, from fixing the roads and collecting the bins to caring for the elderly and safeguarding children."

The TPA research found that, nationally, the number of council staff earning more than £100k had fallen by five per cent between 2011-12 to 2012-13.

TPA chief executive Jonathan Isaby said: "Sadly, too many local authorities are still increasing the number of highly paid staff on their payroll. It's particularly galling in places where councils are pleading poverty and demanding more and more in council tax.

"Taxpayers expect their council to be filling potholes, not pay packets. Many rank-and-file staff in local councils will be equally appalled – at a time when councils across the country are freezing pay, it appears the money they're saving is being used to line the pockets of town hall tycoons."

A YOUNG Falmouth man who was spared jail last year after causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to a double-decker bus and committing a series of crimes while on bail has walked free from court again. 

At Truro Crown Court, Luke Pentecost, 21, of Meadowbank Road, admitted hitting a member of security staff with a medical kit and being in breach of a suspended sentence imposed on him last July. 

Michael Brown, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said on January 12 Pentecost went to the The Stannary Bar at the Penryn campus of Falmouth University. 

Mr Brown said the party there finished at about 1am and people started to leave but Pentecost became involved in a dispute when one of his friends was stopped by door staff. The court heard he picked up a St John's Ambulance medical kit and hit James Ware with it twice. "The defendant accepts being drunk – about nine out of ten on the scale," said Mr Brown. 

Judge Nicholas Rowland said: "He (Mr Ware) was doing his duty trying to put up with drunken people. He should not have to put up with that, nobody should." The court heard Pentecost had a "fairly lengthy" record but nothing previously for assault.

Last July, Pentecost was sentenced to 14 months in a young offenders' institution, suspended for one year for a series of criminal damage offences and burglary. 

One of those involved Pentecost causing £13,000 damage when he released a handbrake sending a double-decker bus smashing into parked vehicles at the Ponsharden park-and-float yard in Falmouth. Jeremy Leaning, defending, said Pentecost had a job working as a tree surgeon in his half-brother's business. 

Pentecost was sentenced to a community order for 12 months, with 12 months supervision by the probation service and a four-month curfew on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 7pm to 7am. He was also ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work and pay a £60 victim surcharge. 

Judge Rowland extended his suspended sentence to 14 months suspended for two years. He said: "If you are tempted to commit any further offences, you know what is going to happen to you."

A NEW battle has broken out over plans to build a stadium for Cornwall after a second developer entered the race to construct the sports ground.

There are longstanding plans to build a stadium, likely to have the Cornish Pirates rugby team as its main tenant, on land on the outskirts of Truro.

However, this week developer Greenside Real Estate Solutions (RES) announced its own plans to build a multi-use stadium on land near Indian Queens.

Stadium for Cornwall campaigners branded the alternative proposal a "non-starter" but Malcolm Lea, a partner at Greenside RES LLP, insisted its plan could deliver the goods.

"We're well aware of the need of a stadium for Cornwall and that previous proposals have not progressed," he said.

"We believe that the Indian Queens site is the ideal location for the stadium, being easily accessible to a large part of the county by road and rail.

"The site is also close to Newquay airport which opens up additional possibilities of a wide range of uses for the stadium including festivals and conferences as well as national sports."

Mr Lea said the company would soon submit a planning application for a stadium and "a range of commercial and tourist-focused leisure attractions", including a 40,000 sq ft supermarket.

The site is near the incinerator being built at St Dennis and the developer hoped to "utilise the energy-saving opportunities".

Plans for a stadium have been in the pipeline for years, most recently for a site at Threemilestone on the edge of Truro.

Developer Inox indicated it was aware of the Indian Queens plans but said it was still set to submit a planning application for the supermarket which would fund its stadium plan in early September.

Non-starter

Rod Lyon, a spokesman for the Stadium for Cornwall working group, said: "We don't think [the Indian Queens proposal] holds any water. The people who want to develop the land have thrown it in to get people interested in their application. They're not interested in a stadium whatsoever. I think it's going to be a non-starter.

"Truro is the administrative centre and Indian Queens is so much out in the wilds; for the money-making and financial side, what businesses are there out there to promote it?

"A Cornwall Council survey of the whole of Cornwall put Indian Queens and Roche second, with Truro most suitable.

"We'll only support that if the other one becomes dead in the water. I don't think it'll come to that: our gut feeling is if the main application for a supermarket is not accepted in time there may be other ways to provide a basic stadium to which extra bits could be added later."

Truro City Football Club recently announced that it had a commitment from a developer to build a Football Conference-standard stadium if it got permission to build a retail park on the club's current site in Treyew Road.

Festival goers to Boardmasters at Watergate Bay are waiting for information about refunds after the event was cancelled yesterday due to extreme weather conditions.

Organisers of the festival near Newquay decided to close the festival's arena after strong winds and torrential rain brought carnage to the site.

The final night of the four-day music and surf event had been due to be headlined by the band Bastille on Sunday.

The band tweeted: "Gutted about @Boardmasters81 being cancelled. Hope everyone there had some fun this weekend regardless."

Those behind the festival have promised to provide information regarding refunds within the next 72 hours and are advising campers check the Boardmasters website.

The festival's surf competition was unaffected by the extreme weather and went ahead at Fistral Beach as planned.

A body matching the description of a missing man has washed up at Falmouth marina.

The man, in his sixties and from the Redruth area, sparked an extensive search by the police and Falmouth Coastguards following his disappearance yesterday.

Earlier in the day his car was found in a car park in Falmouth. 

A police spokesman said the body matching the description of the missing person was discovered washed up at Port Pendennis at 5.50pm yesterday evening.

Police say they are not treating the death as suspicious.

Formal identification of the body has not yet taken place. 

Emergency healthcare at the the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust (RCHT) at Truro has been officially designated as being at "high risk" as record numbers of patients demand treatment.

Long delays in A&E have led to the declaration, with two separate whole system reviews, including one by the President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, ordered in a bid to tackle the situation.

The four-hour emergency department target was failed in the first three months of the year and, according to board papers, is likely to fail again in the second quarter.

The figures suggest the service is being swamped and it is estimated that by the end of this financial year, nearly 73,000 people will have attended A&E – an increase of 9% on predictions.

The trust declined to provide a statement, however a briefing provided to its board highlighted the fact that more people were turning up late at night and at the weekend.

A bid for £1.1 million has been submitted which, if delivered would mean more consultant and nursing posts could be funded.

However, chief operating officer Jo Gibbs said in the paper that this could merely be papering over the cracks: "Without further investment and significant change in the rest of the health and social care system to reduce attendance/referral to hospital and to speed discharge of medically fit patients, the overall performance against the four-hour target cannot and will not be sustainably achieved."

A spokesman for NHS Kernow, which pays for health services provided at Truro, said work was under way to deal with the situation.

"Cornwall is not unique in being identified as a 'high risk health system' and this is based purely on waiting times in the county's only emergency department," he said.

The spokesman said it had been given an extra £3.7 million to deliver sustainable care and improve waiting times.

Seven day a week access to diagnostic tests and increasing the number of doctors at the hospital to deal with minor ailments were also being explored.

A HOLIDAY MAKER has praised a "true gent" who managed to find his lost engagement ring with the help of his trusty metal detector.

Gavin Reay was camping at Churchtown Farm in Gwithian with his wife Kerry and their family when he lost the ring that is worth around £2,500.

He immediately contacted the farm's reception who told Mr Reay about Darren Troon, an Illogan man who appeared in the West Briton back in June when he found his wedding ring five years after losing it at a football match at Wendron.

Mr Troon arrived at the campsite after work and immediately got to work searching the ground, finding the ring in just five minutes.

Mr Reay, who lives in Nottingham, said: "We were down at Gwithian bodyboarding when my wife and I took off all of our jewellery and put it in a little pocket in a board bag I bought earlier on in St Ives.

"We then went back to the tent and I stood the board up against the tent, took my wallet out but forgot to do the zip back up.

"The bag fell over so I shook it out and that's when the contents must have fallen out."

Mr Reay's nephew was playing by the tent and it was when he declared that he had found some coins that the penny dropped and Mr Reay realised that it was the items in the pocket that were on the ground.

"I felt absolutely devastated, especially because it was mine and Kerry's wedding anniversary the following day."

When Mr Troon arrived he immediately picked up a signal and dug down and found the ring lodged three or four inches underground.

"Darren was gutted for me but when he found it we were all in tears and so relieved.

"He refused to accept payment and was a true gent. He just sums up the people around here, all incredibly friendly and helpful."

A TAIL-LESS fox cub who was adopted by a Cornish wildlife centre and attracted legions of fans across the world has died.

Forrest Stump, four months- old, died a quick and painless death after having a seizure at his home in Feadon Farm, part of the at Gwel an Mor holiday complex, in Portreath.

Staff at the farm have said they are extremely upset at his sudden death, but are pleased that they could give the little cub a happy home if only for a few short months.

Gary Zammit, Wildlife Ranger at Feadon Farm, said: "Even working with wildlife every day and for the past 30 years, you never get used to losing your friends. He was such an adorable little chap and he is very sorely missed."

Named Forrest Stump due to his missing brush, he arrived at the wildlife farm in April after a he was found by a tourist, motherless and alone in a puddle near Newquay.

The four-week-old malnourished cub was placed into the care of fox fosterer Mr Zammit who spent weeks nursing him back to health.

He said: "Forrest was in an awful state when they found him and it was touch and go for a long time. A fox that young can go downhill very quickly, so he needed round-the-clock care. It's a bit like having a newborn with night-time feeds and constant attention."

Forrest's recovery was also aided by the wildlife handler's dog, Barney, who was similarly found abandoned and minus his tail.

Mr Zammit added: "It really was love at first sight with them both.

"Barney was so gentle with him and they played for hours and hours. They were exhausting to watch.

"I think they might have been kindred spirits – even without tails to wag you could tell they were happiest when they are together."

Unable to fend for himself the plucky cub was housed with Todd, Copper and Meadow – Gwel an Mor's resident foxes – after he was fully recovered.

From the moment he arrived at the centre Forrest became an internet sensation on the company's Facebook page and gained fans from as far afield as New York and China.

Alongside the West Briton, his story also featured in the national press.

He died suddenly while playing one morning last month and tragically the vet could do nothing to save him.

Alyson Zammit, Wildlife Ranger at Feadon Farm, said: "We've had such lovely and supportive comments since he passed away.

"It is wonderful to know that he educated and was loved by many in such a short time. We are delighted he got to live out his life happily with us and we are happy in the fact that he got the best possible care he could while he was with us."

A TEENAGE holiday maker had to be winched from rocks in North Cornwall after he tried to follow his dad up a cliff face.

The rescue of the 14-year-old, believed to be on holiday from outside of the UK, involved three cliff rescue teams from Bude, Boscastle and Port Isaac, as well as an RAF rescue helicopter.

No harm came to the lad, who was returned to his family after the incident at Crackington Haven, near Bude, just after 4pm today.

A spokeswoman for Falmouth Coastguard, which co-ordinated the rescue, said: "The boy's father and other brother left the beach via the rocks but the boy decided the stay with his mum on the beach.

"The boy changed his mind and tried to follow his dad and got stuck.

"The boy sent a text to his dad to tell him he was stuck on the cliff face."

The spokeswoman added that the ground at the top of the cliff was not suitable for a cliff rescue, so the 169 helicopter from Royal Marine Base corrChivenor in Barnstaple was tasked to assist.