GREAT Western Ambulance Trust's switch from a one-year to a two-year and then back to a one-year stay of execution of the Wiltshire Air Ambulance has been condemned as a smokescreen by campaigners.

A press release from the trust says: "The contract for the air ambulance is in the process of being re-negotiated with the police and we are seeking a one-year extension whilst we are undertaking our clinical review of the best ways of providing services to patients."

This is in contrast to the trust's statement last week which talked about a two-year extension.

Wiltshire's Chief Constable Brian Moore said he is still faced with losing the police helicopter if the Great Western Ambulance Trust is not prepared to sign up for another five years.

The current contract with Police Air Services, the owners of the police helicopter, is up for renewal at the end of this year and Mr Moore told the media last week that, if he could not find a partner with whom to share running costs, he would be obliged to end the service.

A spokesman at police headquarters this week said that nothing the ambulance trust has said in the past few days has changed the situation.

Mr Moore told the Gazette last week: "If the ambulance trust does not come on board with us we will be £500,000 down and that is a price we cannot afford.

"I am not about to lose officers to finance the helicopter. The helicopter would be a significant loss and has a capability we have no other means of matching. But if I can find no alternative funding, then it will have to go."

Mr Moore added: "Two years is no use to us. We need a minimum commitment of five years. If the ambulance trust departs after two years, we will have to finance the helicopter ourselves for the remainder of the contract and we can't afford it."

Devizes MP Michael Ancram said: "These are diversionary tactics, designed to take our mind off the main issue, that this is Wiltshire's air ambulance, working in company with Wiltshire police."

Mr Ancram and his fellow Wiltshire Tory MPs James Gray, Robert Key and Andrew Murrison will be asking for a debate in the House of Commons. Mr Ancram said: "We will pursuing this as hard as we can.

It has always been Wiltshire's air ambulance, supported by the people of Wiltshire, and I don't believe the trust has the right to play games with it."

Dr Richard Riseley-Prichard, one of the founders of the Wiltshire Air Ambulance Appeal, described the trust's tactics as a smokescreen.

He said: "This is designed to put us off. A two-year contract makes no more sense than one year. The police are going to look somewhere else. I know Dorset would like to share the costs of a helicopter.

"Your campaign is proving very successful, and the trust don't like that.

"The trust's tactics are a distraction and we are not a bit impressed. There is a huge weight of opinion in Wiltshire to keep the air ambulance. It doesn't help that there are no Wiltshire members on the ambulance trust board."

Meanwhile, the ambulance trust's head of communications has told councillors from Wiltshire, Avon and Gloucestershire that there are no plans to axe the service. A letter by Victoria Eld, read out at a meeting of a scrutiny committee last Friday, said: "Let me reassure you - the Wiltshire Air Ambulance is not under threat."

She said the service remained committed to providing effective air ambulance cover to the people of Wiltshire, along with the best clinical care possible.

The committee, which met in Trowbridge, was told that the trust aims to complete its review of the air ambulance within six months.

In her letter addressed to county councillor Tony Deane, Ms Eld added: "If we cannot improve the clinical level of the service provided by Wiltshire Air Ambulance, we will not change any of the current arrangements."

Ms Eld told the committee: "There's been a lot of confusion in the press. We are looking at the clinical level of skills we provide on aircraft, not the air operation."

A new air ambulance based in Filton is due to be launched in the next few weeks. The air ambulance, which can fly only during the day, is funded by an independent charity but the trust is providing the medics. Ms Eld said it would principally serve Avon but at times it would be used in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.