ST JOHN Ambulance was given a new lease of life as its flower festival in Bishop Auckland drew to a close, when it was awarded a new ambulance.

The flower festival, marking 900 years of the charity, took place over the Bank Holiday weekend at Auckland Castle, and there was plenty of reason to celebrate.

In a generous bid the Durham Provincial Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons, a branch of the Freemasons, presented the Durham County branch with a new £40,000 Crusader ambulance.

It was a welcome gift for St John Ambulance, which has been told it will have to scrap most of its fleet of mainly second-hand vehicles under a new European regulation. The gift was handed over by Provincial Grand Master Peter Croft and was blessed by the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Michael Turnbull.

The vehicle is equipped to deal with almost any situation, whether it's transporting babies to a special care baby unit, or being used as a mobile care unit for helping the homeless, an accident and emergency vehicle, or a community transport unit.

Mr Croft said: "The ambulance is out of this world. By the time it is fitted out with equipment it will be worth £50,000. The aim is to help St John replace its ageing fleet of ambulances. These new vehicles can adapt to any situation."

The charity anticipates it will have to replace most of its vehicles under the new safety regulation, expected to come into practice at the end of next year, which may outlaw many features of older ambulances.

Mark Master Masons have promised £2m to buy every one of the 46 county branches in Britain a new ambulance. County Durham was one of the first to get theirs.

Alastair Cartwright, St John Ambulance County Executive said: "It's a multi-purpose vehicle as well as a front-line ambulance. We have nine good ambulances in the county but we tend to get second-hand ambulances because we can't afford them new. It's not viable to upgrade them.