Calls for Stourbridge to have police station again amid shock over stabbings
Stourbridge needs a new police station to provide a visible police presence amid rising levels of violent crime and anti-social behaviour, the town's MP has said.
Suzanne Webb has urged the regon's police and crime commissioner to work with her after the previous police base in the town was closed down in 2017.
It comes after two teenage boys, aged 14 and 15, were stabbed last month in the multi-storey car park of the Ryemarket Shopping Centre in the town centre.
Ms Webb said: "I am being told loud and clear across the town centre that anti-social behaviour has increased in the last six months and this is leading to more crime.
"The latest appalling incident has shocked many and I share that shock and the concern that this issue should be a priority for the police and the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).
"There are specific concerns around the Stourbridge car park and I welcome the council spending £150,000 on CCTV in that location. But what many said and I fully support is that a police station or, at the very least a permanent base for police officers in the town centre, is what is needed right now."
Ms Webb argued the town had been "forgotten" due to its police station closing down in 2017 as part of cost-cutting measures, with the site being purchased by Lovell in 2018 which turned it into apartments.
Ms Webb added: "Local people want the reassurance of a visible police presence in our town and since the closure of the police station by the then PCC in 2017, Stourbridge has been forgotten in my view.
"We need our police station back. It is what I want to see happen, it is what many retailers would like to see happen and it is what the majority of Stourbridge residents want to see happen.
"The shocking incident this month has now amplified those feelings and concerns. I urge the PCC to act and work with me so we can reinstate the much needed police station."
