An appeal has been launched in the U.K. to fund an air ambulance service for Hertfordshire. The campaign aims to raise enough money for the lease or purchase of a helicopter.

Stephen Williams, chairman of the Essex Air Ambulance Trust, says: "The response has been tremendous but there is some way to go."

The Hertfordshire service will come under the new East of England Ambulance Trust being formed to cover the six counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

The Essex Air Ambulance has been running its fund raising operation for ten years but there is no air ambulance service covering Hertfordshire.

Williams says: "It costs in excess of £105,000 every month to keep an air ambulance flying and the charity receives no National Lottery or Government assistance. But we are hoping to raise sufficient money to allow us to run a service for Hertfordshire and organise the wider services to benefit from economies of scale that comes from having a bigger geographic area administered by one efficient administration."

Hertfordshire businessman Rob Forsyth is organising the appeal for funds.