A new chief executive and board of directors at the region's under-fire ambulance trust will be in place by the end of the autumn, its interim chairman said today.

All five non-executive directors at the East of England Ambulance Service resigned in June following a damning report into the leadership of the NHS trust by Anthony Marsh, CEO of the West Midlands Ambulance Service.

Geoff Harris, interim chairman of the ambulance trust, said the NHS Trust Development Authority had received 46 applications from people wanting to become non-executive directors at the service, which covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.

He added that he hoped the new non-executive directors will be in their positions by September. Former NHS Norfolk chairman Sheila Childerhouse and Frances Pennell-Buck joined the board for their first meeting today as interim non-executive directors.

Mr Harris added that the recruitment of a permanent chief executive was 'moving ahead with pace' and the new person at the helm could be announced by late autumn, he said.

Andrew Morgan, former chief executive of NHS Norfolk, has been interim CEO of the East of England Ambulance Service since December following the retirement of Hayden Newton.