Grantham's once-threatened ambulance station is poised for expansion to make room for today's bigger vehicles.

The Nottingham-based East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) has applied to South Kesteven District council to extend the existing station on Beacon Lane, Grantham, which is in the St Anne's Conservation Area.

A 50m2 metre extension to the existing building is sought making it total almost 400m2. Staffing at the premises would remain at 20 full-time and two part-time officers, the application said.

It continued: "The existing Ambulance station is of purely functional design and typical of late 1960's or 1970's public building architecture

"The proposed extension forms part of a general upgrade of the facilities of the ambulance station and internal refurbishment.

"The Ambulance station itself was considered at risk of closure back

in 2012 which was of great concern to the residents of Grantham. "The local population raised a petition for the saviour of the Ambulance station which collected 12,500 signatures." The garage area of the ambulance station, it continued, accommodates six ambulances but with ambulances getting bigger to meet the needs of the health service, the once purpose-built facility is now too small to contain them securely. "The proposed extension is designed to simply extend the length of the garages (2.5m) enough to accommodate the fleets existing vehicles and also the next generation of fleet ambulances. "This will future proof the existing stations facilities for some time coming ensuring its valued presence in the centre of Grantham ." The application added: "The Ambulance station design is clearly a design of function. The proposed extension is intended to provide nothing more than the extra space required. The extension is set well back and well hidden from the existing street scene. "It has been demonstrated that the Ambulance Station is highly valued in its current form by the local community. "We conclude that it is our view that the proposed extension will have a neutral impact on the conservation area and that it would cause no harm to the character or appearance of the conservation area."