LANCASHIRE'S life-saving Air Ambulance could be grounded next year unless a new sponsor is found to back the £700,000 a year project.

The National Air Ambulance Association is waiting to find out if its three year, £14million sponsorship deal with the Automobile Association is going to be renewed.

That deal, in turn, has helped to pay for the launch of the North West Air Ambulance, which is based in Blackpool.

The £750,000 annual running costs of the helicopter were met in full by the sponsorship in its first year, with 75 per cent in the paid for in the second year.

The third year, which began in April, saw 50 per cent of the running costs handed over.

The rest has been raised by charity events, including a money-spinning lottery.

But now fund-raisers are facing up to the prospect of having to find a lot more -- if not all -- of next year's running costs themselves.

A spokesman for the North West Air Ambulance's charity office, based in Liverpool, said: "Our funding comes via the National Association of Air Ambulances who arrange the money from the AA.

"We do not know how much money is going to come from the AA in the future, because they three year deal ends next year. It will be a massive task if we have to raise it all."

Now every council in the North West is being asked to give money to keep the air ambulance running.

A spokesman said: "We are looking at every available source of funding to raise cash.

"We have already had some money through from councils, but we hope there is more to come."

Blackburn with Darwen Council was to be the first in East Lancashire to consider the request for funding.

At a meeting this week, they were told the air ambulance has flown 1,700 missions since its launch in May 1999, attending casualties who are inaccessible to land vehicles, or whose survival chances depend on the speed of the medical response.

The matter will be discussed again at next Thursday's executive committee.

Nobody from the AA was available to comment.