A successful city centre paramedics-on-bikes service has been scrapped by ambulance bosses South East Coast Ambulance Service has run the scheme in Brighton and Hove for the past two summers.

Medics were on hand to respond to urgent 999 calls in areas of the city which motorbikes and ambulances found difficult to reach.

However they will not be returning this year because the service says it is not a good financial use of its resources.

The bikes may patrol major events like Pride, but they will no longer be on routine patrol.

At peak times paramedics were dealing with between five and seven calls a day and hundreds of people were treated throughout July, August and September.

Despite its success, the scheme was not thought to be busy enough to justify keeping paramedics on standby when they could be working in an ambulance or on a motorbike instead.

An ambulance service spokesman said: “The unit proved successful in small pockets of the town during times of heavy demand.

“However it did not enable us to make best use financially of our resources and clinicians at other times.

“While this service may no longer be used outside of specific events, we would like to reassure people that it will continue to deliver a high-quality and responsive service for patients.”