Police may sue over loss of helicopter

The Dyfed-Powys Police helicopter covers incidents in Welshpool and Newtown as well as other areas of Mid Wales, but could be replaced as soon as 2014.

The force's police authority says it has 'grave concerns' over the Government's plans which would see 23 aircraft shared between 43 forces.

There would only be three replacements on standby.

It is now seeking legal advice on how it can challenge the plans, the authority said today.

The plans would mean replacing Dyfed Powys Police's current helicopter with just one fixed-wing aircraft to cover nearly 500,000 people in an area more than half the size of Wales.

Earlier this year, Dyfed-Powys Police Authority won the support of MPs after publicly speaking out against the plan, set to come into force in 2014, voicing concerns about the suitability of a fixed-wing aircraft in mountainous terrain.

In June, the Government hit back introducing a statutory form of legislation requiring police forces to sign up to the new service.

But Dyfed-Powys Police Authority has now gone a step further, with authority members agreeing to continue to consult legal advisors in order to challenge the terms of the statutory instrument on the basis it is flawed.

A report by the authority's chief executive, Keith Reeves, says a further, more specific, statutory instrument would be required to compel the authority to enter into the agreement, saying the current instrument 'is not considered to be sufficiently precise to require an authority to enter into an agreement which it considered inimical to the interests of the authority, its force and its inhabitants.'

It adds that the authority has run test flights of a fixed-wing aircraft which it says have 'confirmed the validity' of its concerns.