A REPORT on the National Police Air Service (NPAS) has highlighted a “catalogue of failures” and “justifies the campaign to protect the precious Dyfed-Powys helicopter,” according to the MP who led the campaign, in conjunction with local newspapers - including the South Wales Guardian, against losing the dedicated police helicopter.

Dyfed-Powys Police was the first force to have a police helicopter, but the former Police and Crime Commissioner sold off the asset and joined the centralised National Police Air Service in 2015 – a move Mr Edwards then warned would negatively affect the service provided to local residents.

The report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary describes the service as “financially unsustainable” and said that flying hours had nearly halved despite the cost of flight hours more than doubling since 2009.

The report said the service needed “urgent reform”.

Dyfed-Powys, the report says, saw the second slowest response time throughout Wales and England, with the average time to respond taking 57 minutes and 42 seconds.

Mr Edwards said the report justifies the campaign he and his Plaid Cymru colleagues led to protect the service.

He added that Prime Minister Theresa May, whom he personally wrote to as Home Secretary during the time of the campaign, “should hang her head in shame.”

AM Adam Price said the report was “damning” and asked how many times Wales needed to lose a service before other political parties joined Plaid Cymru in “demanding we take control of our own affairs.”

Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP, Mr Edwards said: “Along with thousands of residents, I warned that the plans of the Tory British Government to sell off our dedicated asset and centralise the service in England would lead to a diminished service locally.

“There is no glory in being proven right – just a genuine feeling of disappointment and extreme anger that our sincere and very real concerns have been realised.

“The report reveals a catalogue of failures with the service, and justifies our campaign to protect the precious dedicated helicopter we had.

“We have already shown that doing so would see an additional £25million per year for our forces and, of course, it would allow our Welsh forces to stop this centralisation of services which has so epically failed us.”