Hang on a minute. Are we forgetting the comprehensive spending review? ALL public services are being hit, some worse than others.
When Policing is being slashed across the board by 20% in some areas we need to be very careful, air support does not arrest people, yes we are a 'force multiplier' but we are an expensive department, like dogs horses and divers.
Chief officers have less money to provide a service to the public and they have a duty to maintain front line resources and that is the officer on the ground.
Time for a reality check people, we are an expensive luxury that got bloated in the days of plenty and I'm sorry to say the good old days are exactly that, the old days. Moaning about how good and effective we used to be will solve nothing. Do you think the diving supervisor and the mounted boss are not doing the same, of course they are, but they are quickly coming to terms with the CSR and cutting their cloth accordingly.
NPAS has had the misfortune to come along at the same time as the CSR and is being blamed for the cuts, they were coming any way, the country is in sh1t state and we cannot sit here saying we should be ring fenced, how many cops does a fully role equipped helicopter buy, sell an aircraft and you can save a lot of jobs.
To put a slightly different slant on this and using an example from private industry, how would the 'moaners' on here feel if the Home Sec had said, "we will keep all helicopters with no base closures, but you all have to take a 10% wage cut to cover it" anyone want to volunteer for that?
The Merseyside unit closed well before that region joined NPAS. So how is that being blamed on NPAS? SYP fought to keep their aircraft and still have it, why didn't Merseyside do the same?