HUNDREDS of people have joined campaigners calling on the Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands to ditch his plan to move Brierley Hill Police Station to Dudley.

The campaign, which is being led by retired firefighter Wayne Little, Brierley Hill councillor Adam Davies, and Dudley South MP Mike Wood, urges the Labour PCC Simon Foster to U-turn on the controversial plan which would see the borough's police HQ relocated to Dudley.

The closure plan was announced back in 2021 as part of a West Midlands Police force drive to create an "efficient and effective operational police service" and more recently it has emerged a proposed new super station could be sited in the furthest corner of the Dudley borough - which campaigners fear would impact on response times to areas such as Stourbridge and Wordsley.

Wayne Little, who after a 30-year career with West Midlands Fire Service is running as a Conservative candidate for Brierley Hill in the May local election, said: “Brierley Hill is right in the middle of the Dudley borough – therefore, if there is to be one super station for the whole borough, it makes much more sense for it to be here in Brierley Hill rather than tucked away in the north end of the borough on the Sandwell border near Tipton.

“The PCC will say this doesn’t mean slower response times for residents in Brierley Hill, Wordsley, Stourbridge and other parts of the borough, but after 30 years in the emergency services I know the location of the place where our officers are based is absolutely critical to quick response times.”

Brierley Hill Tory councillor Adam Davies said: “The Police and Crime Commissioner’s plan makes no sense at all. We’re told this new super station would be to serve the whole borough – but the new proposed location near Tipton is further away from most parts of our borough than our existing station in Brierley Hill is.

“Unless the PCC sees sense and leaves our police station where it is, or builds the new super station elsewhere in the Brierley Hill area which sits roughly in the centre of the borough, it’s hard to see how crime rates and response times won’t worsen as a direct result of his damaging decision.”

Hundreds of Brierley Hill residents have signed paper petitions and an online petition has now gone live as part of the campaign to stop the plan.

Click here to sign: https://forms.gle/Q6owqVeoyqFTUTAq7

Brierley Hill Police Station was among more than 20 earmarked in 2021 for closure to help save the force £5 million a year and to eliminate the need to spend £24 million on repairing ageing police buildings.

Police chiefs have also said the closure of old buildings would help to make the force estate greener and more sustainable.

West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said the plans would "maintain the number of publicly accessible front desks, keep local officers based in their communities and modernise the estate to make it fit for a 21st century police force".

Dudley South MP Mike Wood, however, said of the plan: “West Midlands Police recently recruited their 1000th extra police officer thanks to the Government’s commitment to fund 20,000 extra officers across the country.

"From that, we should be seeing crime rates fall and response times improved right across Dudley South, but that won’t happen if the Labour Police and Crime Commissioner moves our station to the border with Sandwell.

“Residents in Brierley Hill, Wordsley, Kingswinford and elsewhere in the centre and south of the borough are rightly furious at this plan – that’s why we’re calling on Simon Foster to change his mind.”