Plans to introduce traffic calming measures along a busy rural road could delay emergency response times, ambulance bosses claim.

The Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) has written to Bradford Council to oppose plans to build eight speed tables along Buckle Lane and West Chevin Road, between Otley and Menston.

Bosses claim the measures could reduce response times and cause damage to ambulances if they are built along the narrow road.

Claire McAndrew, a YAS advance emergency medical technician at Menston Ambulance Station, has called on the Council to introduce speed humps rather than tables, as emergency vehicles can straddle them and save time.

She said: “This road is used constantly by emergency ambulances and rapid response vehicles as it passes outside the ambulance station, which is used 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

“Speed tables reduce our response times, delay us arriving at emergencies and damage our vehicles.”

Plans for the speed measures were drawn up after complaints by residents, with backing from ward councillor Matt Palmer.

A report by Barra Mac Ruairi, the Council’s strategic director of regeneration, to the Shipley Area Committee, which meets in Bingley Town Hall on Wednesday, refutes the ambulance service claims.

“For many years there has been agreement with the emergency services in West Yorkshire about the type of calming features used,” the report says. “These features are not as severe as nationally agreed standards would permit. The features proposed have been designed to minimise the effects while still achieving a traffic calming effect, and are designed in accordance with current technical criteria.”