A recent short article about the air ambulance landing on Bamburgh Castle green raises the question that maybe towns and even villages should have a dedicated facility for emergency use?
While the air ambulance could almost land anywhere, there could be issues in heavy rainfall with flooding of grassed areas, or them being too soft and risking the helicopter or attending ambulance sinking into mud; but a dedicated facility could be kept well drained and made from an all-weather surface at a strategic location (i.e. one unlikely to flood, be at fire risk etc)
From a cursory Google search, the main requirement would be a 100ft circle or 100ft by 100ft square or slightly larger (based on hospital helipad), and with a six inch thick concrete surface. A very simple and relatively inexpensive piece of infrastructure that could help save lives by allowing prompt, fuss-free attendance by an air ambulance.
This could be part of a wider emergency services role, a helipad could be a ‘base’ for an ambulance crew/other emergency services when on breaks etc, and could have provision for emergency equipment such as a defibrillator/first aid equipment.
Such a site could be ‘open’ as a public space for people to walk, cycle or play games like football on when not in use, perhaps the only caveat would be a bollarded surround with a locked access gate so that cars or other unauthorised vehicles couldn’t have access.
An obvious place for such infrastructire would be towns (5000 persons or more) with existing medical facilities such as a Doctors Surgery, infirmary etc. Ideally a helipad would be co-located with these facilities so that a patient awaiting the air ambulance could be attended to by medical professionals either in the building, or within the ambulance but with additional resources on hand.
Ultimately even a small village could probably have a dedicated helipad with fairly little fuss, and could even use a partially grassed surface (with an all weather grid material contained inside), relatively small outlay for a very long term and easy to maintain piece of infrastructure.
There have been a number of instances in recent years, of roads being closed due to drifting/heavy snowfall, intense rainfall events causing flooding, and storms bringing down trees. With climatic changes these events are likely to become more frequent and more severe; so a helipad may form the only emergency access to towns/villages, as has been sadly seen in places affected by Hurricane Helene in the USA which has devastated other infrastructure like roads and railways.
Ryan Hogg 