Its not just the ambulance service, the Police are just as starved of resources.
Late last year, one of our neighbouring farmers saw two individuals with a tipper lorry, fly tipping on a private road on his land. He proceeded to block the road (and their escape) with his tractor.
As he had been instructed in the past by the police, he contacted the police but was told it would be ‘a few hours’ before they could get there.
So, he shouted up on farm watch (our local farmer’s radio system) and within minutes he had ‘posse’ of seven farmers (including myself) in an assortment of farm vehicles with him.
As the fly tippers started to get a bit arsey, one or two shotguns were discharged (above their heads) and the tippers bravely ran away.
One of the telehandlers with its bucket was used to reload the tipped rubbish back onto their lorry – during which the lorry’s tipping hydraulics ‘somehow’ became damaged. So, it won’t tip again without serious attention! Two of the tyes also became flat!
For good measure, as it was nowhere near a watercourse, we also pumped 800 litres of liquid cow slurry through the lorry’s cab window into the cab!
The lorry disappeared the following day – from the tracks, it looked like it was towed away by another lorry. The aroma of cow slurry remained though.
The Police never got back to our neighbour who reported it.
Moral of the story, don’t relay on the police (and don’t fly tip on a farmer’s land)!