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Wiltshire Air Ambulance

A303 - Heli Motorway
Helicopter at RUH Bath
Helicopter at RUH Bath

It all started 23 years ago when Wiltshire Police had the idea of hiring a helicopter to help with policing the summer solstice at Stonehenge. During the flight back following the event, the crew spotted a road traffic accident and decided to land and offer assistance. This resulted in a life being saved and an idea being born.The idea resulted in the only dual police/air ambulance collaboration in the UK. The basis of the agreement being a two third/one third split of the costs of operating the aircraft. As there was no national funding available for projects of this nature, Wiltshire Air Ambulance, a charitable trust, needed to raise in the region of £750,000 per annum from donations from the public and businesses in Wiltshire. As a result of the generous nature of Wiltshire people this was easily achieved. The aircraft is the only jointly run air ambulance in the country and it is the only air ambulance able to fly at night. The arrangement with Wiltshire Police will be coming to an end as they will be utilising the National Police Air Service when the current exemption expires in December 2014. This coincides with the expiry of the lease of the aircraft in use at present. This leaves Wiltshire Air Ambulance requiring a new dedicated aircraft for 2015 at a purchase cost of $6.5 million. The organisation operates from the hanger at Police HQ in Devizes. As there was now a need to increase the fund raising efforts to purchase and run the new aircraft, the decision was taken to move the administration to larger premises, whilst keeping the operational side at Devizes. At this point David Philpott , Claire Kelly and their team began searching for a serviced office facility in the area and chose Carlton Business Centre in Calne as the new base for their administration centre.Heli - West Kenit MX The income is already increasing and is scheduled to comfortably meet the target required for 2015. If anyone reading this blog would like to help Wiltshire Air Ambulance in this task they can be found at  www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk