THE weather and a high number of calls were blamed for the ambulance service failing to hit its response time targets.

The East of England Ambulance Service Trust tries to get some type of emergency response to the highest priority cases within eight minutes 75 per cent of the time.

It only managed 72.7per cent in February.

The trust tries to get an ambulance to the top category calls within 19 minutes 95 per cent of the time but only managed 93.7per cent.