A FORMER Monmouthshire county councillor has become embroiled in a Twitter row over Welsh emergency services supporting the Pride Cymru parade in Cardiff.

Graham Down, a serving councillor on Mathern Community Council, questioned the presence of police and ambulance personnel at the event in a series of tweets over the weekend.

Thousands of people flocked to Cardiff city centre for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) parade.

But in response to an image of the South Wales Police mascot, Billy Blue, and his Wales Air Ambulance counterpart, at the parade, Cllr Down asked: “Shouldn’t they be out saving lives/catching criminals?”

More than half an hour later, a response was issued by Wales Air Ambulance saying: “Hi Graham, this isn’t our actual helicopter. Our 4 helicopters are currently on standby for absolutely everybody across Wales.”

The tweet has since gained more than 2,000 retweets, and nearly 7,000 likes on the social media site, but it prompted an angry response from Cllr Down, a former county councillor for Shirenewton.

“Upsetting your supporters isn’t actually clever or funny,” he replied, which itself gathered more than 200 replies from Twitter users.

Another tweet from the charity stating that their helicopters would be decorated with rainbow stickers in support of the LGBT community also drew the ire of the councillor.

He asked: “How much of my monthly standing order was spent on this?”

The account replied: “Hi Graham, the stickers on the helicopter were very generously donated by Custom Graffix in Gorseinon. We hope you like them.”

Cllr Down replied: “They may be donated but that doesn’t mean you have to use them.”

Other Twitter users said they had been inspired to donate to the ambulance charity as a result.

One user, Alex Bevan wrote: “Thanks for raising this Graham. I’m setting up a standing order for @air_ambulance as a thank you for their solidarity with LGBT ppl [sic]”. Another user, Jo Gennari, added: “Who knew Graham could help raise so much for a deserving cause.”

Cllr Down and Wales Air Ambulance were contacted for comment.