Average New Year for 999 services

Jan 2 2008 by Abby Alford, South Wales Echo

NEW Year revellers kept the Welsh Ambulance Service busy, with paramedics responding to hundreds of 999 calls.

Control rooms in Pontypridd and Pontypool, received 833 emergency calls from the south-east region, covering Cardiff and the Valleys, between 9.30pm on New Year’s Eve and 7.30am on New Year’s Day.

It is thought many of the calls will have been to drink-related incidents.

A spokesman for the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust said: “It was certainly busier than an ordinary night, but it was average for a New Year.”

Thousands flocked to Cardiff city centre to see in the new year at the annual Calennig celebration. But police sergeant Steve Mead said the night had passed quietly. He said: “There were a few thousand at City Hall, they were expecting 20,000, but I don’t think they had so many.”