coconutty - you asked
. . . how many Police Authorities have "signed up" to NPAS?
A call from a friend & a web trawl found the following in a provincial Essex newspaper:
Essex: Police opt into national air service Essex Police will become part of a national air service to save hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The Essex Police Authority, along with at least eight other forces, have signed up to the National Police Air Service which is set to launch on April 1 next year.
Benefits included round the clock access to air support every day of the year and extra units if there is a major incident but there is expected to be some police staff redundancies.
Supt. Iain Logan said: “Certainly, Essex Police is very much part of the national police air service agreement.”
There were talks of transferring the helicopter to Southend Airport, which would mean an extra eight minute flight time to reach the north of the county, but officials stressed the nearest helicopter at the time will attend.
It does raise a few questions - of course, but what would you expect!
1. It doesn't tell us who the other eight forces are?
2. When I last spoke to them, none of the three remaining units in East Anglia (soon to be 2, according to NPAS plans) work 24hrs - so not sure how
round their clock is?
3. If the unit is staying, which "police staff" are likely to be made redundant?
4. Where would "extra unit
s (
note plural) for a major incident" come from if there are only 2 in the region - which I understand includes everything from North Norfolk to Dungeness!?
All this bearing in mind that the MET are unlikely to join the party, so the next aircraft, if Henlow goes, would be E.Mids, Benson, Surrey or Sussex - depending on incident location!! Complete madness?
5. Any news on the Southend move - apart from previous rumours on this forum?
Looks like the "spin" continues in stiletto-land too!