'ALARMING' figures reveal ambulance response times are falling well short of targets in the Forest.

The government says 75 per cent of life threatening call-outs should be responded to within eight minutes. However, the figure for April 2013 to January 2014 was just 58.1 per cent.

Paul McMahon, who sits on the County Council's Health Overview Scrutiny Committee, admits the stats are alarming - but says unrealistic government targets is the real problem, not a failing ambulance service.

He said: "I can assure all Foresters that steps are in place to improve response time services, but I think it is fair to say that we will never achieve the same targes as Gloucestershire cities."