I have followed this story with interest; in the interests of full disclosure I should say that I'm the CEO of a charity, although not one in this field.
It seems to me fairly obvious that this services offer nothing that the current set up cannot - I agree with the Air Ambulance Association. Part of the problem is that it is very easy to set up a charity - as long as the cause is deemed charitable the only reason that the Charity Commission can use to refuse registration is that another charity is doing exactly the same thing for exactly the same group of beneficiaries in exactly the same way and covering exactly the same location. And so, this Charity is set up to solve a problem that doesn't exist...
That having been said it also appears to me that the current AA setup could do with some rationalization. There really is no need to have separately constituted Charities (and consequent costs) for each area of the country. I accept that fundraising needs to be local (and be, in the jargon, restricted) but there's no need for separate Chief Execs, HR Managers and Finance departments...
Last edited by Captivep; 6th Feb 2013 at 11:15.