A union leader says he is confident the ambulance service is moving in the right direction, following a damning report from a health watchdog.

West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service was yesterday accused of logging inaccurate response times to life-threatening calls and overworking staff, by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), an independent body set up to monitor standards in the NHS.

The report followed an inspection of WYMAS between September and December last year, when staff in the Transport and General Workers Union and Unison were embroiled in an industrial dispute with trust chiefs.

That dispute has now been resolved and workers have accepted a pay deal.

Phil Brown, regional industrial organiser of the T&G, said the report had vindicated the industrial dispute and conditions had improved since then.

"Last year we were telling people what the troubles were, response times were falling by the wayside because of a lack of staff and morale was low," he said.

"Now this has been reflected in the CHI report and staff feel their plight at that time was justified and they have been vindicated in the steps they took."

Mr Brown said the poor report reflected on trust management but West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority had to shoulder some of the blame.

"The health authority holds the purse strings and the service has been under-funded for years," he said.

He said criticisms in the report did not reflect on staff, who had never been put under pressure to alter response times.

Problems of communication between control staff and ambulances were caused by a move from Birkenshaw to Wakefield, he added.

He called for more funding to help turn the service around and for the trust management to continue working with frontline staff to improve the service.

A working party has now been set up. It will meet at least six times a year and will be made up of trade union leaders, frontline staff and senior management.

Mr Brown, said: "Eight members will be from the shop floor, and that is the key. They will have ultimate power to dictate policy.

"We are going forward now and there will be improvement .