News : Roundswell & Sticklepath

Planning consent to operate an air ambulance service from Eaglescott Airfield in North Devon has now been granted by North Devon District Council to the Devon Air Ambulance Trust.

The second Devon Air Ambulance has been operating from North Devon since April 2005 and from Eaglescott since April 2006, when the charity was gifted a 125 year lease by the owners.

The service has now completed over 2000 missions.

The charity’s Chief Executive Heléna Holt said: “We are delighted that planning consent for our new airbase has at last been granted.

“This means we can move on to a new era for our North Devon operation. Now we can develop a purpose-built hangar, including an operations room and full crew facilities, and we can now look forward to introducing an EC135 helicopter to North Devon as a replacement for our older Bolkow 105b aircraft, when the Trust takes delivery of its own new helicopter in September.

“Most of all, planning consent provides us with long-term stability and the ability to plan effectively for the future and greater peace of mind for the people of North Devon.

”We are very grateful for the support of the local community and parish council. We aim to make them very proud of the North Devon Air Ambulance which they now officially host.”

In late September the charity will take delivery of a new EC135 helicopter which has been purchased by the charity instead of the traditional leasing method.
Devon Air Ambulance Trust is the charity which raises the funds to keep both Air Ambulances in Devon flying
The charity will be celebrating its 16th anniversary on 27th August this year
It costs over £3 million each year to keep both helicopters flying
With 2 Air Ambulances 50% of Devon can be reached by Air Ambulance within 5 minutes, with the remainder within 15 minutes
The charity receives no funding from central or local Government, nor the National Lottery
Devon has 2 Air Ambulances – one based in Exeter, the other in North Devon
To date they have flown 13,133 missions
The 13,000th (joint helicopters) mission was flown in June 2008