Tory Police and Crime Commissioner candidate: I'll slash office costs to save police stations

Jay Singh-Sohal said that if elected he will drastically reduce the running costs of the West Midlands PCC’s office and plough the cash into police stations and bolstering frontline officer numbers.

Labour PCC David Jamieson’s Lloyd House office is understood to cost £6 million a year to run and employs more than 40 staff.

Simon Foster, Labour’s candidate to replace Mr Jamieson in the £100,000-a-year role when he retires at next year’s election, says he will continue the controversial police station closure scheme in order to preserve officer jobs.

The scheme has caused anger among MPs and members of the public, who say the closure of front desks has led to West Midlands Police becoming more detached from the communities it serves.

Mr Singh-Sohal, a Captain in the Army Reserve, said: “We need to ensure that the office of Police and Crime Commissioner is taking less money out of the budget of West Midlands Police and putting all that resource into increasing the number of police officers so that they can be out on the streets getting crime down.

“We also need to make sure we stop police station closures.”

Mr Foster, a supporter of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, has called on his opponent to reveal details of how he plans to fund his police stations pledge.

He accused Mr Singh-Sohal of being “big on promises and short on detail”, and said “his plans don’t add up and he knows it”.

He continued Mr Jamieson's line of blaming the station closures on Government cuts to police budgets, which he said had led to the loss of 2,221 officers and hundreds of civilian staff.

“Against that backdrop there is a stark choice to be made," he added. "And the bottom line is that police stations don’t stop crime – police officers do.

“That’s why I will continue to demand a fairer budget for West Midlands Police, but I cannot countenance redirecting scarce funds into maintaining buildings at the expense of frontline policing."

West Bromwich West MP Shaun Bailey is among those to hit out at the station closures. He has accused Mr Jamieson of "prioritising his ivory tower at Lloyd House" and showing "contempt for communities".

West Midlands Police’s estates programme has seen more than 70 police stations and bases close over the last decade.

Eight more – including Aldridge, Oldbury, Tipton, Wednesfield, and four in Birmingham – were due to shut their doors for good this year but their closures have been delayed by the pandemic.

The Government is recruiting 20,000 new officers by 2022, including more than 1,000 for West Midlands Police.