Cornwall Air Ambulance Opens New Building Thanks to £241,000 Libor Donation

On Friday 1^st April Colonel Edward Bolitho OBE, Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall opened a new building for Cornwall Air Ambulance. The build was possible due to a grant of £241,000 of Libor bank fines from HM Treasury.

The Lady Mary Holborow Fundraising and Volunteering Building is a significant expansion to the charity’s Newquay headquarters. The new building provides space for volunteers to work amongst paid staff and improves the sustainability of the charity’s fundraising operation.

The new space also provides a dedicated clinical training room for paramedics and doctors working together as paramedics study for their Masters degrees in Pre-Hospital Critical Care/ Retrieval and Transfer.

The government awarded the grant the award last year, stipulating that it must be used for a capital project, and at the time HM Treasury looked favourably on bids for buildings for the air ambulance charities to create sustainability in their future fundraising.

Paula Martin, the chief executive of Cornwall Air Ambulance, said: “The new fundraising and volunteering building and the new clinical training room will certainly enhance the service that we offer to patients. While the medical team now has a dedicated area in which they concentrate on their studies, we can now accommodate more volunteers who raise vital funds to keep the air ambulance flying.”

The new building is named after Lady Mary Holborow DCVO in recognition for the service she has given to Cornwall Air Ambulance as Chairman of the board of trustees since 2012.

Last year the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced a total of £5 million from bank fines to be shared between 20 air ambulance charities across the UK.

He said: “From enabling the fantastic air ambulance services to extend their flying hours, to helping build brand new specialist headquarters, this funding will play a vital role on helping to save hundreds of lives every year.  It is absolutely right that we use funds from those who demonstrated the worst values to reward those who demonstrate the best, like our hardworking air ambulance crews.”