Hundreds of pounds collected by Sussex fund-raisers is sitting in a frozen bank account while national and local groups argue over who it belongs to.

The national ME Association decided to disband its local groups and instructed banks across the country to close their accounts and deposit the cash in its account instead.

But the move has angered local fund-raisers who fear they will never get their money back and Sussex sufferers will miss out on the cash collected for them.

Colin Barton, a member of the society, said the money was now useless.

He said: "We can't touch the funds but the national association can't move them either because we are signatories on the account.

We won't move it because we could lose it. The money will stay were it is for now, which is terrible because it could be helping people."

Society treasurer David Butler, an ME sufferer who lives in Kemp Town, said: "Money was always collected on a local basis for local use and services but now there is no guarantee it will sent back to Sussex.

"It makes me extremely angry that the sufferers of ME are now having to suffer again."

The Sussex group, which had operated under the national association's logo and charity number, has become independent and applied for its own charitable status.

The 540 members of the group, now renamed the Sussex ME Society, have raised cash through street collections and from donations, including £250 from the Argus Appeal.

It is used to run telephone helplines and recently to compile a report examining the the treatment of ME sufferers by healthcare professionals and the medical establishment.

An ME Association spokesman confirmed it had instructed banks to close the groups' accounts and for the money to be deposited with it.

He said the association was following a trend in large charities to get rid of local branches.

He said: "At the moment we are looking to make it as painless a process as possible.

"We could not carry on assuming responsibility for what the groups said, which we have no control over, which may eventually bring us into disrepute."

The Essex-based association is also demanding other assets, like computers and office equipment, are returned.

The spokesman said: "We will eventually redistribute them to the groups within a certain structure but at the moment I can't say when.

"All this is being looked into at the moment."

But Mr Barton said: " The local groups have never received money from head office. It usually flowed the other way.

"Luckily we have some members who have supported us financially and we have raised enough to keep going without the account funds.

"We have been told we will get up to 50 per cent back of unrestricted funds, which is money put in by members for local services.

"That means we could only get tuppence back and we don't even know when we'll get that."

The Sussex ME Society says it will continue its work with sufferers throughout the county.