A motion calling for West Midlands Police to keep its neighbourhood policing teams in local bases in Halesowen and Brierley Hill has been backed by Councillors.

Conservative Councillors Simon Phipps (Belle Vale) and Adam Davies (Brierley Hill and Wordsley South) put forward the motion to a meeting of the full council calling for guarantees from the Police and Crime Commissioner that police would retain local bases in towns like Halesowen, and for the Brierley Hill base to also keep it's publicly accessible police front desk and response teams as is currently the case.

In October, the Police and Crime Commissioner laid out plans to close at least 30 police stations across the West Midlands, including Halesowen and Brierley Hill. Whilst it is reported that officers would relocate locally in each town, Councillors have pointed to Stourbridge as a cause for concern that this may not happen.

Stourbridge Police Station was closed in 2017, but a new local base for officers has still not been opened, despite an announcement in March 2024 that a new base will be found. Cllr Phipps said:

“People across Halesowen are very worried about the prospect of our police station closing and our local officers having to move all the way to the new Dudley station at Castlegate. This would mean they have far further to travel at the start and end of their shifts and inevitably lead to a much lesser policing presence in our town.

“We’ve already seen this take place over many years in Stourbridge and successive PCCs have failed to return their police to a local base. That’s why we’re saying they must be no station closures unless officers have a new, appropriate location to be based in our town.”

Cllr Davies added: “Residents across Brierley Hill, Wordsley South and surrounding areas want to know their local police teams are based in a location that makes sense – not least because that impacts response times and the level of police presence in our respective areas. 

"The Police & Crime Commissioner's plan to move so many of our police resources to an expensive new £3.35m site the northern edge of the borough makes next to no sense; especially as it will cost the taxpayer more money than keeping them in the existing station which is based in the centre of the borough at Brierley Hill. 

"It's a shame Labour councillors tried to water down our motion with their amendment, but I'm glad we managed to get our call for Response teams and a public front desk to stay in Brierley Hill put back in."

Councillor Davies and his ward colleague Cllr Wayne Little have also previously organised a petition calling on the elected Police & Crime Commissioner – currently Labour's Simon Foster – to think again. Nearly 900 local residents signed the petition backing the councillors' campaign. 

The motion was passed by the council which requested meetings for locally elected members and the public with the police to discuss police station closures and writing to PCC Foster requesting further assurances that stations will not be closed unless new local bases have been found.