Paramedics are warning that ambulance cover is unacceptably low at night in many country areas of Sussex.

They say lives are being put at risk unnecessarily by concentrating ambulances in big urban areas such as Brighton and Hove and Crawley.

While their concerns are genuine, it's a bit rich to complain that ambulance bosses are playing politics with people's lives.

There is a limited number of ambulances and common sense dictates they should be based in the biggest centres of population.

It isn't possible to have an ambulance sitting on every village and town street corner waiting for incidents to happen.

Sussex Ambulance Service NHS Trust is doing its best to meet Government targets of getting an ambulance to most emergencies within eight minutes.

People live in small towns and villages for many reasons and high among them are peace and tranquility.

Unfortunately, the remoteness that adds charm also inevitably means it will take slightly longer to respond to any emergency - and that includes crimes or fires as well as serious accidents.