The following are all in the public domain:- it's £2.9m not £3.5m; one third of that comes from the sale of the old aircraft and one third as a grant from the UK Home Office. Of the remainder, half is a saving in reduced scheduled maintenance/warrantied items/relief aircraft rental etc so the force only has to find one sixth of the acquisition cost. All this was thrashed out at the relevant police authority approval for purchase.
It's not really for me to comment on the question of two emergency services aircraft separately funded and based just a few miles apart....
VFR; why not speak to your jolly friendly local air support unit?