Top cop: More police stations in the Black Country could close

Dozens of police stations have shut in the past three years but Chief Constable Dave Thompson said there is scope to close even more.

Although he insists the level of police bases open to the public will remain the same.

A pilot on the proposal has already started with Old Hill Police Station in Cradley Heath closing and officers moving to Haden Cross Fire Station in the same town.

It comes as the police force faces having to find savings of £22 million over the next year while battling against a 14 per cent rise in recorded crime in the last year including a 22 per cent increase in murders.

There are 23 police bases in the Black Country with eight in Dudley and five in each of Walsall, Wolverhampton and Sandwell – and just a handful of these are still open to the public.

The Black Country has lost more than a dozen police bases in the last two years as part of £8.6m worth of cuts to the force’s estate.

Could they work out of a housing office?

Mr Thompson, who this week marks two years in the job, said: “We are doing some work now to look at what our future estate is.

"We certainly don’t need as many police stations to work out of at the moment and so we will, in the next few weeks, be beginning to talk about how many of our local neighbourhood teams could be based with another agency.

“Can they share the fire station with fire brigade? Could they work out of a housing office? And we will be asking the question how many big buildings have we got?”

He added: “We have lots of little police stations which are not very well used and we are asking if we are better spending the money on bricks and mortar or better spending them on policing and technology. “

“This is a challenge lots of public services are going through, there is a lot of buildings while public services are smaller.

“The technology people are using means that we can have staff out on the streets longer and the need for less space. What I think is really important is we work with other agencies to see where we can share.”

Mr Thompson said the review was to also look at the number of police custody suites based across the region, adding it may be ‘more efficient’ to move them within a larger building such as the force’s custody block at Oldbury.

He added: “We won’t be altering the number of front enquiry counters to the public.”

Richard Costello, a spokesman for West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson, said: “At the commissioner’s next board meeting there will be a report on the police estate.

"Following the disappointing police funding announcement from the government, this is an issue the commissioner is having to revisit.”

Wolverhampton South East MP Pat McFadden said: “My constituents want to see as visible a police presence as possible in the local community but in the end that can only happen if the force is properly funded by the Government.”

In 2016 Wolverhampton saw closures to stations at Heath Town, Graisley, Oxley, Pennwood Court and Staveley House – the latter in Whitmore Reans has recently been earmarked as a prayer hall.

In the same year Walsall Police Station in Green Lane closed after serving the town for around half a century with officers relocated to Bloxwich and the Civic Centre.

The Tanhouse Centre in Great Barr had already shut its doors to the public earlier in the year and in the last fortnight it was announced that Darlaston station will be one of the next to be axed.

Dudley saw the Netherton station close in early 2016 with the town centre base following suit later that year with officers moving to council offices.

More bases were closed in 2017 and put up for sale including Stourbridge and Kingswinford.

It comes after the £33 million new-look Lloyd House was officially unveiled at the end of last year that is now home to 1,500 staff.

Chiefs say it has cut down on £3m a year in rent.

West Midlands Police is undergoing a five-year plan called WMP 2020.

It includes a new website designed to eventually take 15 per cent of crime reports and the merging of the force’s 999 and 101 call centres.