AMBULANCE chiefs have promised remote areas of the Yorkshire Dales 24-hour emergency cover by the autumn.

In the past, Upper Wensleydale and Swaledale have had to make do with the nearest available team once the station at Bainbridge closed at night.

Management at the Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (Tenyas) confirmed last year that the Bainbridge base is to be upgraded.

However, at a meeting of the Upper Wensleydale parish forum on Wednesday, it was confirmed round-the-clock cover will be available by October at the latest.

"I hope it will be a lot earlier,'' said chief executive Trevor Molton.

He also announced the service will be boosted by a rapid- response vehicle, on call 14 hours a day and manned jointly by professionals and community team members.

The vehicle will be based at a new ambulance station to be built on the site of Bainbridge's Preston's Garage - the first in North Yorkshire to include facilities for other emergency organisations.

Voluntary fire marshals, the Dales Watch, Farm Watch networks and Swaledale Fell Rescue team might also find room within the building.

Project manager Gordon Smith said it could even be used as a template on which other rural communities will base their own ambulance services.

"Bainbridge will be the model station which other communities will look at and say: 'That's what we want'," he said.

The chairman of the newly-founded Hambleton and Richmondshire Primary Care Trust, Chris Long, said he also hoped the Bainbridge ambulance station will epitomise what the organisation has set out to achieve.

"Our major agenda is about bringing health care to the people and this is a key element in delivering that and reassuring rural people that the health services are not forgetting about them,'' he said.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has yet to debate a formal planning application for the ambulance station.

If it is given the go-ahead, building work could start in September and the new base could be operational by March.

However, Mr Molton stressed that 24-hour cover does not depend on the new station being available - although he admitted it would vastly improve working conditions for staff.