Police Aviation News June 2011

Police Aviation News June 2011 7
UNITED KINGDOM
CLEVELAND: Tyne Tees TV news broke the news and Cleveland Police confirmed it –
certain Cleveland Police Authority members are being investigated for potential corruption
by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Dave McLuckie the Chairman of the authority is just one of the past and present members
who are now under a criminal investigation and he promptly resigned.
It was McLuckie that recently announced that 230 police officers would be made redundant
after privatising many civilian posts and a number of Internet sources have been seeking to
blacken his name since.
The inquiry is being headed by Warwickshire Police’s Chief Constable Keith Birstow and will
be conducted by a team from North Yorkshire Police headed by Detective Chief Superintendent
Richard Mann.
Recent PFI and air support contracts are allegedly being looked into according to one HQ
source.
Editor: In September 2008, the Cleveland Police Authority placed an order for a new helicopter
to replace the existing EC135T1 G-NESV. The new helicopter is a Eurocopter
EC135 P2i which was part of a bulk purchase of 6 aircraft. The specification of each of
these aircraft was designed by bringing experts together from police aviation and procurement.
The subsequent aircraft were all then identical which saved costs over the lifetime of
all of the aircraft.
Following the acceptance process in December, the aircraft was finally taken on charge during
early January 2011.
Cleveland Police have now paid all sums to Eurocopter apart from a small retention portion
which will be paid in 12 months time assuming no issues develop. There is the guaranteed
trade in for G-NESV of £1M, plus potential profit sharing. Cleveland were awarded a 40%
grant towards the purchase of this new helicopter which has been received in full.
All of these movements mirrored the payment transactions undertaken by the other purchasers
of the “identical fleet” EC135s and as far as can be seen are wholly above reproach.
Similarly the aircraft is still maintained under manufacturers warranty by Eurocopter.
On the face of it this leaves only the provision of ground support at Tees Side Airport and
the pilotage as areas where air support contract transactions fall outside the normal.
MERSEYSIDE: Merseyside Police (UK) Air
Support’s helicopter is being scrapped under
plans to pool police resources to save money. Police
departments in Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire,
Greater Manchester, Cumbria and North
Wales have agreed to collaborate in five areas to
cut costs. Four helicopters using four air bases will
cover the region. As a result, Merseyside's helicopter
(which is the oldest in the fleet) and its air
base will be decommissioned.
A regional air support unit will be created and operated
from a central location. Margaret Ollerenshaw,
chairman of Cheshire Police Authority,
said, "We are all facing the same financial pressures
and, in some areas of policing, it makes
sense for us to join together to share resources
and make savings."
NORTH EAST: The Newcastle International Airport based air support operations has
recently launched a new Air Support Unit section on the Northumbria Policewebsite featur-