In an "embarrassing" blunder, the East of England Ambulance Service Trust mistakenly purchased a fleet of 75 new MAN and Ford ambulances fitted with steel, rather than alloy, wheels.

Because of the speeds at which the vehicles have to be driven, the steel ones are not suitable.

To correct the error, bosses have had to spend £133,500 retrofitting new wheels, forcing the vehicles off the road and putting lives at risk, by reducing cover.

One of the new MAN ambulances in EEAST's fleet (Image: EEAST)

Trust bosses had identified alloy wheels as being preferable to steel due to an issue with plastic indicator tabs are used to tell when wheel nuts are loose.

Previously, heat caused by high speeds associated with emergency vehicle driving with steel wheels had caused these plastic indicators to melt.

As a result, ambulances with steel wheels had to be taken out of action more regularly for manual checks.

Alloy wheels reduce this need, but when the new fleet was ordered, EEAST's procurement team omitted to specify alloys from the order, and the vehicles were instead delivered with steel wheels.

An EEAST spokesman said: "Many vehicles in our fleet have used steel........

© Norwich Evening News