The Staffordshire service will be merged within two years

Staffordshire will remain independent for the time being and will work alongside a larger West Midlands force.

This will cover the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

A campaign was fought in Staffordshire to keep its service, which has one of the best records in the country. It is to be merged within two years.

The merger is part of a national plan reducing the number of ambulance trusts in England from 29 to 12. It will take effect in July.

Health minister Andy Burnham made the announcement in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Boss resigned

He said: "For now Staffordshire Ambulance Service will remain a separate trust working in partnership with the new West Midlands Service but eventually merging later."

Conservative Health spokesman Stephen O'Brien said: "I'm pleased that as a result of concerted work by MPs across Staffordshire supported by the huge amount of work by the people of Staffordshire the ministers have backtracked.

"But it is only for that period of 24 months."

A 2,500-name petition was handed to the government to protest at the West Midlands merger plan.

In March Roger Thayne, one of the longest serving ambulance chiefs in the country, left his post at the Staffordshire service in opposition to the merger plans.

Statistics show the Staffordshire service gets to 88% of emergency calls in eight minutes and, after heavy investment in frontline technology, the service is the only one in the country to have a state-of-the-art heart machine in every vehicle.