Hopes of keeping Teesside’s police helicopter based in the area have been boosted after Home Secretary Theresa May ordered a review of the decision to relocate it to Newcastle.
Stockton South Conservative MP James Wharton had met Mrs May to raise his concerns about the decision taken by the National Police Air Service (Npas) to scrap the Durham Tees Valley Airport base during the 2016/17 financial year.
Campaigners feared the decision, which would see a helicopter coming from Newcastle or Leeds, would prevent incidents being reached quickly enough.
Mr Wharton also raised concerns that response times used to justify the decision were misleading.
He said: “We benefit from our helicopter being locally based at Teesside Airport and plans to move it to Newcastle need to be reconsidered. A helicopter based at Newcastle would take longer to respond and have competing demands on its time, Cleveland’s helicopter has done a lot of good work fighting crime in our area and should be kept here.
“I am pleased the Home Secretary has agreed and is seeking this review.”
Now Mrs May has confirmed in a letter to Mr Wharton she will press Npas to work with the Department for Transport to review the proposal.
Mr Wharton had criticised Police Commissioner Barry Coppinger, an Npas board member, for voting to relocate the service.
But Mr Coppinger defended the move, saying the force needed to make savings of £18m.
“We are paying £1.4m for the air support at the moment, and I want to negotiate that down quite substantially,” said Mr Coppinger.
A change.org petition to save the base set up by campaigner James Hind, 31, of Stockton, has been signed more than 1,700 times.
