Virgin to terminate London Air Ambulance sponsorship??

[beeman]

I dont think you can really have a go at someone for deciding to stop sponsoring a charity. At the end of the day they've given LOTS of money they didn't have to over many years.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by martyh

Why shame the Virgin Group ? it's a decision they may or may not have made ,either way it is a decision that hundreds of companies make every day ,by your logic every company that doesn't sponsor charities etc should be shamed .You are being pathetic and totally overreacting to something that even the OP has acknowledged may not be happening

[mertle]

Originally Posted by Sirius

OK

please produce real evidence that Virgin have done this and second then produce evidence that Richard Branson was the person who made the decision. Go on i dare you to produce evidence instead of rant

I said he would set the deal up this article said it was his receptionist who made him aware HEMS funding issue.

http://www2.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=16906

You need ask OSEM Sirius

I trust OSEM is right afterall I dont live in london. He honest poster might not agree with some people views some like yourself mine but Osem not been bad poster.

However its not on there web which question was this hoaxer. There article national coaches donated £25,000.

http://www.londonsairambulance.co.uk/news

However doing some googling came across this this cant aboded well. Its about the charity setup oversee the air ambulance funding in 2009 and CEO resignation.

http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-396484.html

Originally Posted by beeman

I dont think you can really have a go at someone for deciding to stop sponsoring a charity. At the end of the day they've given LOTS of money they didn't have to over many years.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by danielf

It's a bloody disgrace that the air ambulance is dependent on donations in the first place.

Emergency services should be directly funded from tax funds. Not dependent on the whims of businesses or private individuals.

Spot on.

FYI

http://www.shephardmedia.com/news/ro...uture-funding/

10 February 2011 - 14:21

Funding for London’s Air Ambulance (LAA) helicopter for the next seven years has been secured through a financing deal from Santander Corporate Banking.

The charity will be able to continue running London’s only helicopter emergency medical service, having secured the financing from Santander, with the support of the Virgin Group, the LAA announced on 7 February.

[Taf]

Originally Posted by danielf

It's a bloody disgrace that the air ambulance is dependent on donations in the first place.

Emergency services should be directly funded from tax funds. Not dependent on the whims of businesses or private individuals.

I'm 100% behind that too!

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by mertle

I said he would set the deal up this article said it was his receptionist who made him aware HEMS funding issue.

http://www2.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=16906

You need ask OSEM Sirius

I trust OSEM is right afterall I dont live in london. He honest poster might not agree with some people views some like yourself mine but Osem not been bad poster.

However its not on there web which question was this hoaxer. There article national coaches donated £25,000.

http://www.londonsairambulance.co.uk/news

However doing some googling came across this this cant aboded well. Its about the charity setup oversee the air ambulance funding in 2009 and CEO resignation.

http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-396484.html

NO

You are the one who started the blame, You was the one who mentioned Richard Branson You are the one who should answer and produce the evidence that HE made the decision SIMPLES

Or ADMIT you was wrong to blame Richard Branson

[Tim Deegan]

Originally Posted by Hugh

FYI

http://www.shephardmedia.com/news/ro...uture-funding/

10 February 2011 - 14:21

Funding for London’s Air Ambulance (LAA) helicopter for the next seven years has been secured through a financing deal from Santander Corporate Banking.

The charity will be able to continue running London’s only helicopter emergency medical service, having secured the financing from Santander, with the support of the Virgin Group, the LAA announced on 7 February.

So it looks like OSEM's doorstep caller could have been conducting some sort of scam.

---------- Post added at 22:33 ---------- Previous post was at 22:27 ----------

As others have said, you can't criticise a company for withdrawing sponsorship. They have paid huge amounts of money over many years. The Daily Express sponsored HEMS before Virgin. And in most other counties they are funded by private donations and charity fund raising. Personally I think it is wrong that they have to rely on handouts, as the helicopters should be an integral part of the Ambulance service. After all, police helicopters are paid for out of their budget.

What I do think is that the government should waive VAT on the fuel they use.

---------- Post added at 22:35 ---------- Previous post was at 22:33 ----------

Originally Posted by New to cable

There is a petition for the Air Ambulance's to get the V.A.T back on fuel. Sign it and share if its something that you think should change. It may already be on here somewhere.



http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/29349

[mertle]

Tim Deegan would agree with that would go further any provisions charities as whole.

Sirius do think I am wrong now as it looking like Virgin not pulled out with mine hugh research. My fear was a invaluable service was put at risk with original posers call. It has not branson company not pulled out. Thankful for the sponsorship he done will continue.

Incidently Cameron looking u-turn the decision to limit donations for UK charities. Which thankful right thing to do but think something got to be done on bogus charities.

Which will be good news for Air ambulance service.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...ax-relief.html

Perhaps the sequence of events before posting should be -

Read
Research
Post

Rather than
Read
Rant

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Perhaps the sequence of events before posting should be -

Read
Research
Post

Rather than
Read
Rant

[Mr_love_monkey]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Perhaps the sequence of events before posting should be -

Read
Research
Post

Rather than
Read
Rant

What? and go and cloud the issue with facts? - come on man! this is the internet!

[Osem]

I'm always very cautious about dealing with chuggers and doorstep callers believe me. I don't think it was a scam as they weren't asking for money - in fact the guy who knocked at my door refused a cash donation. He explained that they do have other sponsors but were concerned about losing their main one and the effect it might have on the service. Judging by the quite lengthy conversation we had (sadly we've been fairly regular ambulance users over the years due to our youngest's various problems) he was a very knowledgeable and articulate guy and certainly knew all about the various conditions my son suffers and the emergency medication he has to carry (which is not even carried by ambulances). I find it hard to believe that an opportunist scammer would know much, if anything, about such things.

Given what I've read here I reckon it was more a case of he and his colleagues (I saw a number in neighbouring streers a bit later on) garnering long term support for the service using the Virgin 'decision' to raise awareness of the situation (i.e. it being run on a charitable basis) and spur people to donate. Not necessarily entirely honest, but not really a scam either.

I'll be having a chat with some of my neighbours later and see if I can shed any more light on this.

Found their website:

http://www.londonsairambulance.co.uk/be-involved

No sign of anything related to Santander but Virgin still prominent.

Update:

Curiouser and curiouser...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...Ambulance.html

The Spanish-owned bank – which since 2004 has bought the Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley franchises in the UK – secured the financing on LAA's helicopter, with support from Virgin Group, the charity's major sponsor.
The financing is thought to be around £2m, with the charity which runs LAA needing to raise another £1m a year to keep the service running.

This article from 2011 states that the Santander money is in addition to Virgin's sponsorship so I wonder if Virgin has very recently decided to review that situation and that's what my visitor was referring to?

[watzizname]

Who cares if it's Richard Branson's fault or not, blame him anyway.

Put enough blame behind it and he could feel pressured into helping to restore the sponsorship, and his good name