A ROW over funding has erupted between the region's two air ambulance services.

Fundraisers from the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service (YAAS) say colleagues from the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) are raising money on their patch.

This was hampering YAAS's efforts to buy a second helicopter, said Alan Davis, area fundraiser for the Yorkshire charity.

YAAS covers all of Yorkshire from its base at Leeds Bradford Airport.

GNAAS covers the North-East and Cumbria and responds to emergencies in North Yorkshire when the Yorkshire helicopter is busy.

The northern charity was forced to ground two of its three helicopters earlier this year after donations dropped following the Asian tsunami disaster. One aircraft is now back in the air.

Mr Davis said: "The GNAAS seems to have been spreading its fundraising efforts as far down as Skipton, which we think is wrong really.

"I don't want to start some sort of turf war because we are all in the same business of saving lives, but now the GNAAS aircraft are back up and running, we think it's time Yorkshire people concentrated their efforts on their own service.

"We do not raise funds from other areas where other air ambulances operate as this would be unfair."

Mr Davis added that many people living in North Yorkshire were confused about which service covered their area.

But Grahame Pickering, chief executive of GNAAS, said Mr Davis was confused.

He said: "I would like to invite Mr Davis to our Darlington office to clarify and clearly collect his misconceptions.

"The GNAAS has been operating from Durham Tees Valley Airport for three years and as part of our job we travel into North Yorkshire at the request of the Yorkshire service."

YAAS needs to raise £2.5m to buy a second aircraft, which would be based in North Yorkshire.

The Yorkshire charity's chief executive, Martin Eede, has written to his counterpart at GNAAS asking for a meeting to discuss funding.

He said: "The meeting will allow us to overcome the difficulties that we have and hopefully we can report a successful outcome."

He added: "Both services do a valuable job and the air ambulance world is far too small to fall out with people."