Paramedics will be able to put their feet up in new rest rooms across the county if eight ambulance stations are sold.

Public sector trade union Unison said the move was a fresh twist to the controversial plans, following negative reaction from ambulance crews who threatened to take industrial action if the stations were sold.

But Oxfordshire Ambulance Trust chief executive John Nichols said plans to replace the old bases with three larger centres in Banbury, Oxford and Didcot had always included proposals for a number of amenity spots where staff could rest between jobs.

In March, the trust announced proposals to sell its stations in Bicester, Banbury, Chipping Norton, Witney, Abingdon, Wantage, Didcot and Thame, because paramedics now wait on stand-by at key points around the county, including lay-bys, garages and supermarkets.

Staff claimed the plans would leave them without facilities to wash and relax and would also put patients in remote areas of Oxfordshire at risk when all crews headed back to the new stations between shifts.

Unison convenor Philip Bolley said: "Ironically, these amenity points are literally where the old stations are. It may be right that one or two of the old stations are too small, but they can't possibly change all of them to these amenity points."

But Mr Nichols said the proposals had been misunderstood, and that the trust had always meant to provide amenity points for staff -- even though this detail was left out of a comprehensive report to Thames Valley Health Authority.

He said: "What we're proposing is a whole range of new, flexible, social amenity points, which would be sensibly located around the county. We would use the money we make from the sale of the old stations by re-investing it in these amenity points, wherever they're needed."

The trust is holding a series of public meetings over the proposals. They will be at Thame Town Hall on June 12, the Littlebury Hotel, Kings End, Bicester, on June 16, the Northcourt Centre, Northcourt Road, Abingdon, on June 20, and South Oxfordshire District Council's offices in Crowmarsh on July 4. All start at 7.30pm.