THE closure of the Tees Valley police helicopter base could mean air support takes up to half an hour to arrive, an official report shows.

As anger grows over the decision to close the National Police Air Support (Npas) base at Durham Tees Valley Airport (DTVA), it has emerged that helicopters taking off at other bases could take 30 minutes to reach some areas of the region.

In a further blow, police bosses refused to confirm if the aircraft currently stationed at DTVA would be transferred to the base at Newcastle - or leave the region.

The Northern Echo revealed last week how Cleveland police commission and Npas board member, Barry Coppinger, had voted in favour of cuts which would see the Npas DTVA base closing, along with nine others around the country as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

The Npas base at Newcastle International Airport has survived the cull and it had been thought that the Tees Valley helicopter would be transferred there when the DTVA hangar closed in 2016/17.

However, West Yorkshire Police, which oversees the Npas service, was unable to confirm on Monday if the aircraft would remain within the North-East.

If the helicopter was moved elsewhere or retired, this would mean the North-East served by just two helicopters - one based at Newcastle and another at Wakefield.

An Npas report shows that a helicopter leaving either base would take up to 30 minutes to fly to many areas in the Tees Valley, County Durham and North Yorkshire.

Critics say this response time could be even longer if the aircraft was not already in the air or was dealing with another incident.

Npas has revealed plans to base a fixed-wing plan at York, however this would also take around 20 minutes to reach the Tees Valley.

The new information emerged as anger grew over the closure of the DTVA base.

Stockton South MP James Wharton said: "Fourteen per cent cuts to the Npas budget should not mean 100 per cent cuts to the service received by Teesside.

“This is terrible news for the airport and for local policing.

"I think Barry Coppinger has let us down by not fighting for Cleveland."

Sedgefield MP Phil Wilson called on the Government to be "more creative" about how it made savings to the police budget, adding that Npas had had to make difficult decision after deep funding cuts.

The Npas Tees Valley Twitter account has posted a number of tweets highlighting the unit's work following news of the base's closure.

One said: "In the last 12 months to date we have directly found 57 persons, reported as missing, and assisted with the locating of 70 missing persons."

A petition has been launched on-line to fight the closure of the base.