THE plan to merge the roles of West Midlands Mayor and the region’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) have moved a step closer and it is something I support.

The mayor Andy Street has given his permission to move the merger forward and it is now up to parliament to make a final decision.

The West Midlands is an outlier when it comes to these functions being separate and I think it does not work in a region the size of the West Midlands to have a separate PCC. Many other metropolitan mayors including London, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire are in control of their forces.

If this move happens then the West Midlands mayor would be the person to set the force’s police budget, appoint the chief constable and formulate the region’s policing plan.

With the devolution deal now in place giving our mayor more powers over transport spending, regeneration, and housing for example, it makes sense that one office is joining up all the region’s dots because fighting crime and its prevention are very important.

The West Midlands also has a less than enviable record when it comes to offences. It is the knife crime capital of England and Wales with 177 such offences per 100,000 people and rising. Offences had also more than doubled to 360,000 up to June 2023 when compared with figures from 2015. Violent crime figures are also among some of the worst in the country.

Any change will not occur until after the West Midlands mayoral election in May and, as I said, only if parliament agrees. There is talk of a legal challenge by the existing PCC but I hope that doesn’t happen. We need to get on with this important change.

And incidentally I have yet again written to the PCC asking when we are getting our police base and response team back in Stourbridge as promised. This has been a priority of mine since 2019 because it is what the people of Stourbridge want following the ill-judged closure of the police station by the PPC in 2017.

It’s half term and I would thoroughly recommend a visit for the kids to the Red House Glass Cone after I went at the weekend for the open day.

It has arts and crafts from pebble painting to sewing classes to painting pottery to glass fusing. Please check opening times though.

There is also a great opportunity to open a café there if any budding entrepreneurs are reading this. The current one has closed. If you are interested, get in touch with the Red House Glass Cone team.