EMERGENCY service providers have urged visitors and residents to be safe, not sorry, during Royal Ascot at York week.

Chiefs at North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (TENYAS) have issued advice to those at the racecourse and those in the hospitality trade during the five-day festival.

TENYAS is laying on extra resources to cope with an "anticipated increase in demand". Five ambulance crews and three senior ambulance officers will be on hand during the day at York Racecourse.

An additional ambulance control room will be established, with links to the main control room in York. They will work alongside six GPs, three nurses and more than 60 St John Ambulance first-aiders at seven first aid points. This will enable the treatment of minor casualties on site.

Extra resources will also be provided in York, with ambulance personnel responding in ambulances, rapid response cars, mountain bikes and a motorbike.

A mobile first aid unit will be sited in St Sampson's Square, York, between 6pm and 3am, and will be manned by Emergency Care Practitioners and St John Ambulance personnel.

Mike Shanahan, an assistant director of patient services with TENYAS, said: "We have been working with the strategic health authority, primary care trusts, York Hospital and other agencies to ensure we have the facilities to deal with minor injuries on site, leaving the hospital to deal with more serious cases."

Selby and York PCT community nurses will be getting on their bikes to beat the race traffic. Community nurses will be handed bicycles to help them get around the city during peak traffic.

Meanwhile, fire chiefs are reminding hotels and guest houses of their obligations in protecting the public from fires.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service has urged hotels and B&Bs to check whether fire certificates are satisfied, where fire protection measures are working properly and ensure what staff must do in the event of a fire.

The service said it will be projecting a "proactive fire safety campaign of checking a significant number of hotels and B&Bs at random, on the run up to Royal Ascot at York and throughout the event itself".

Updated: 09:55 Friday, June 10, 2005