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Weekly launches campaign to save police helicopter from scrap

A campaign to save a police helicopter from being scrapped has been launched by a Welsh weekly.

The Carmarthen Journal is urging readers to sign its petition to safeguard the helicopter’s future, after its base was earmarked for closure from 1 January 2016.

The newspaper has joined forces with Carmarthen East MP Jonathan Edwards, who is urging Home Secretary Theresa May to reverse the decision after she ordered an external review into a similar decision to remove a police helicopter from Durham Tees Valley Airport, in the North-East of England.

The campaign was launched on yesterday’s front page, pictured below, with readers able to sign the petition via a printed coupon in the paper or on a dedicated website.

Carmarthen police

In an editorial, Journal editor Emma Bryant wrote: “Here at the Carmarthen Journal we pride ourselves on being a community-focused newspaper.

“We want to make sure we are at the heart of local issues, and to make sure we are the voice which holds the powers that be to account.

“This is why we are joining the campaign to save the Dyfed-Powys police helicopter.

“We believe the decision to close the Carmarthenshire helicopter base is wrong, and will risk lives — the lives of people who live and work in the communities we serve.”