Emergency service boost as ambulance station opens

The station, at Keldholme in Kirkbymoorside, has been built beside the old one, which has now been demolished.

It has four ambulance bays with automatic doors and a training room.

Ambulance chiefs have hailed the station as a landmark for the service in the Ryedale area.

David Johnson, chief executive of North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire Strategic Health Authority, will conduct the opening ceremony. He will be joined by staff members past and present. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance is also due to fly in for the ceremony, set to take place at about noon.

Jayne Barnes, chief executive of the Tees East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (TENYAS), said: "This is another important landmark in the life of the ambulance service in this area.

"Our staff have taken a very keen interest in this project right from the start. They were closely involved at every stage in the development and now the finished project boasts four heated ambulance bays with automatic doors, a training room, together with much improved staff accommodation and parking.

"We are most grateful to the main contractors, Biker Wenwaste, and the architects, The Plan Shop, Bedale."

Former Station Officer Allen Rutter is due to attend the opening. He served at Kirkbymoorside between 1950 and 1986, and his late father, Harry, was the secretary, controller and driver for the old Ryedale Ambulance Association, as far back as 1934, when the service was financed by public subscription.

It was so well-supported that at one time, Kirkbymoorside boasted two ambulances to Scarborough's one.

Last year, TENYAS was awarded £900,000 by the strategic health authority to build new stations.

In the past, the trust has been criticised for poor response times in rural areas.

With the funding, stations have been created in Bainbridge, Wensleydale, where the building has space for a police vehicle and a community resource centre, Pateley Bridge in Nidderdale, and now Kirkbymoorside.