Police Aviation News January 2011

Police Aviation News January 2011 6
DORSET: The real news relating to NPAS this last month comes from Dorset. It seems
that the Police Authority there have been doing next year’s sums... and, not unexpectedly,
they relate to cuts. The local media carried a long report on the local authority cuts to services
and buried in there is a police helicopter comment.
Dorset is now one of the lowest funded police forces in the country – and this calls for drastic
measures, says the county’s Chief Constable Martin Baker. To deal with a shortfall of
£6.7M next year the authority has announced dramatic cost-cutting measures to transform
the force. The immediate measures to be put in place on January 4 include losing highranking
police officers, continuing a recruitment freeze, changing shift patterns and possibly
closing stations. In addition they will be flying less hours on their MD902 helicopter.[Bridport
News]
Ed: This follows an earlier prediction that in the wake of the NPAS promise local authorities
will spend little or nothing on their air assets running up to 2012. This was already one of
the units that fly less than they should to be efficient. Less hours means ever higher costs
per hour but it is more pertinent to be asking some silly questions about what this means to
the NPAS promise? Was it not just weeks ago that the ACPO Lead on Aviation and Chief
Constable of Hampshire sacrificed 'his' fixed wing operation on the NPAS altar saying that
the county would be covered by the helicopters of adjoining forces—and Dorset is one of
those.
DYFED POWYS: Plans for a fixed wing aeroplane are being considered to replace the
Dyfed-Powys Police helicopter, which could be axed under the NPAS proposals.
It seems that it was NPAS themselves that proposed fixed wing as an option to the police
authority. When the matter was announced at the end of October Dyfed Powys Police Authority
[DPPA] had not been consulted in relation to the plans and therefore had not been
discussed in detail. Since then the Finance and General Purposes Committee of DPPA considered
a report from the Chief Constable.
Chief Officers have formally raised concerns in terms of the amount of coverage the proposed
NPAS would provide to such a rural area—there is a significant drop in cover.
Delyth Humfreys, Chairwoman of Dyfed Powys Police Authority said, “We have very real
concerns about the implications that taking the Dyfed Powys Police helicopter out of service
would have on the Dyfed Powys area. The current helicopter suits our needs very well –
and is used frequently for life at risk incidents.
“We will now be writing to the project team to make our voice heard and highlight the compelling
argument for keeping helicopter coverage in the Dyfed Powys area.”
As a result another Member of Parliament has been paying attention to this seemingly small
issue of just where UK NPAS is to settle its bases. The Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP
Jonathan Edwards is now asking what the sense is in this plan to abandon new facilities.
[ThisisSW/PAR]
Last month PAN mentioned a figure believed related to the cost of the new air base for the
helicopter in Pembrey as being in the region of £0.8M. In the past month new figures have
been made available that put the cost of the new base at more than £1.5M, almost twice the
earlier figure. The cost of establishing the air support base, occupied in June, has still not
been finalised but Dyfed-Powys Police Authority documents show it is likely to be in the
region of £1.52 million — including £280,000 Home Office funding.
NORTHERN IRELAND: A month ago it looked as if the Devon & Cornwall BK117C-1
was destined to join the Avon Fire Brigade but then the hand of fate stepped in and the
PSNI messed up their leased AS355F2 G-SEWP flying in bad weather in the Mourne Mountains.
The Veritair supplied Squirrel was easily replaced by one of the current surplus of
EC135T1 helicopters littering Eurocopter Oxford but the longer term plan has settled on the
BK117.
It looks as if PSNI are seriously taken with their EC145 [aka BK117C-2] and have flown the