Alderman Melanie van der Horst has provided the council with incomplete information. This is evident from a letter drawn up in haste by the alderman, after the urgent debate about the cut on Weesperstraat was halted after it was unclear whether emergency and emergency services were in trouble.
She writes: ‘The information that has now been provided by the emergency and emergency services has not been shared with me before and did not surface when asked this afternoon either,’ writes Van der Horst. ‘I regret that I was unable to share the full information with the council as a result.’
In the letter she lists a list of incidents that have taken place in the past two weeks. Fire trucks were not allowed to continue and in at least one case it took twenty minutes longer than normal. It was an automatic fire alarm at a hotel, which left hotel guests outside for almost 25 minutes when the fire brigade arrived.
Ambulance service
There are more incidents with the ambulance. An ambulance from the Purmerend region rushed to OLVG Oost, but was refused because it did not have a sticker. Emergency ambulances were delayed at the barrier, because the traffic controllers were not properly briefed initially. The ambulance calls the delivery of the stickers a ‘very viscous’ process.
Director Marleen van de Kerkhof of the Amsterdam Ambulance writes that there are still concerns, because it is very busy at Kattenburgstraat and the Ring, for example. Ambulances have a hard time getting through that.
Van der Horst closes the letter positively by saying that it no longer happens that ambulances or other emergency services no longer pass through the barrier. ‘The problems in the beginning were quickly resolved and I was guaranteed that the arrangements were made in such a way that all emergency services, emergency or non-emergency, can immediately pass through the barrier.’
The ambulance director also returns in the letter to her earlier quote at AT5: ‘The ambulances do lose a few seconds on the arrival times, but there is no reason to assume that the arrival times will be exceeded.’ However, a new analysis will be carried out and it is pointed out that the cut is not the only break in the city. ‘There are many openings, diversions and other interventions that negatively affect accessibility for ambulances, and my impression is that this will not diminish for the time being.’
The City Council will discuss this further in about half an hour.
2023-06-28 21:00:00
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