LABOUR'S policing chief Jack Dromey has backed calls by Black Country politicians for the region to receive a fairer share of police funding to stop the thin blue line being stretched even thinner.

Mr Dromey, Shadow Policing Minister, echoed the concerns of Labour's Parliamentary candidate for Dudley North, Ian Austin, and the party's hopeful for Dudley South, Natasha Millward, when he visited the borough today (Tuesday March 31).

The pair have both raised concerns about Government spending reductions to West Midlands Police which they say will lead to the loss of 2,500 police officers over the next few years to help save £100million on top of £126million worth of cuts over the last five years.

Mr Austin and Mr Dromey are among a cross-party group of West Midlands politicians who have also written to Home Secretary Theresa May urging her to rethink the national funding formula to ensure the West Midlands receives a fairer share of police funding.

The region has the second lowest council tax precept in the country and relies on central government funds more than other forces, so a flat-rate national cut hits the West Midlands harder than elsewhere.

As a result - West Midlands Police is losing almost a quarter of its budget, while Surrey will see its budget fall by 12 per cent.

Mr Austin, who successfully campaigned to keep Dudley Police Station open in the latest round of cuts, said: “We all know savings have to be made, but the government has cut spending too quickly and too deeply, and failing to introduce a fairer funding system is costing the West Midlands millions.

"Police officers are losing their jobs, police stations have closed and Dudley Police Station is still at risk.

“Local people want more police on the streets, more offenders brought before court and more criminals put in jail."

Ms Millward says she has been seeking a meeting with Dudley Police Chief Superintendent Chris Johnson over falling levels of police in the borough and she told the News: "It looks like Dudley has lost more staff than anywhere else in the West Midlands and the cuts seem to have left us with more police cars than police officers."

She said figures obtained under a Freedom of Information request show Dudley lost 13 of its 29 sergeants, 42 police officers (from 126 to 84), and 52 PCSOs (104 to 52) between 2010 and 2014 and she added: "It might be even worse now.

"Bobbies on the beat are set to become an extinct species if we get another five years of the Tories in Government."

Retired West Midlands Police Superintendent Richard Green said he was concerned "uniform policing is contracting to 1960-style delivery" and that Neighbourhood Policing, which he helped to start in the Black Country in 2004, has become a thing of the past due to cutbacks and prioritisation of vulnerability crimes such as domestic violence and child and adult abuse cases.

He said: "Local Neighbourhood Policing websites are in disarray and do not reflect the changes in supervision and numbers of staff; the sites are now out of date to the point that they have long since lost the claim to show named officers in each community."

Speaking outside Dudley Police Station, Mr Dromey said he shared concerns about the degradation of Neighbourhood Policing, adding: "Labour built Neighbourhood Policing - it worked, it was popular, it brought down crime by 43 per cent.

"Now a generation of progress is being undermined by the biggest cuts to our police force than in any country in Europe."

He continued: "The first duty of any government is the safety and security of its citizens. We must never go back to the days when policing was like Robocops driving through estates in cars. Neighbourhood policing is the bedrock of policing. We will put the safety and security of the people of Dudley first. Ours will be a very different approach."

Councillor Mike Wood, Dudley South's Conservative candidate, however, accused the Labour Party of "scaremongering" and said: "The hard work of police across Dudley means crime has been falling over the last five years."

He added: "Labour candidates are trying to use this issue as a political weapon instead of taking responsibility themselves. That's clearly unacceptable.

"They need to be clear about where extra funding would be coming from or just stop scaremongering.

"They're trying to mislead voters into thinking there would be no spending reductions under a Labour government - they need to be clear before they start making up things about our spending plans."