We are pleased that the ambulance service has admitted that it cannot lay any blame on the caller for its error in sending an emergency vehicle to Grove, near Leighton Buzzard, instead of Grove, Oxfordshire, last week.

Fears that a lack of local knowledge could cause such an incident were behind misgivings about the centralisation of ambulance services in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

The outcome in this incident could have been far worse than it was.

How can someone who has dialled 999 in an emergency situation be expected to know that they are speaking to someone miles away who has not a shred of local knowledge?

The onus is on central ambulance control to make sure that it has all the details it needs to ensure a speedy and accurate response.

Systems in the ambulance control room are either insufficiently robust, or were not adhered to. We need reassurance that this cannot happen again.