Wannweil ??(dpa / lsw) – The municipal council of Wannweil ??(Reutlingen district) has rejected a new location for a rescue helicopter, which is intended to provide people in the region with medical help more quickly in emergencies than before. The committee rejected a landing area on the outskirts with a narrow majority, said Wannweiler Mayor Christian Majer on Wednesday. The reasons given included noise pollution for residents and land use. He himself voted for the location at the meeting on Tuesday evening, said Majer. Initially, several media reported on the decision.

According to the state interior ministry, the “Christoph 41” rescue helicopter should actually be relocated from Leonberg (Böblingen district) west of Stuttgart to the Tübingen-Reutlingen axis south of the state capital. This was recommended by the Institute for Emergency Medicine and Medical Management at the Munich University Hospital in order to ensure good care across the board.

Criticism of the decision of the Wannweiler municipal council came from Tübingen’s mayor Boris Palmer. “How can a community survive when local councils refuse to even host a rescue helicopter?” Palmer wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. “The question of who feels bothered by a life-saving helicopter flight simply shouldn’t matter.”