Allegation of deceit in police station closure row

A HEATED debate on the future of Sutton Coldfield’s police station sparked accusations of ‘deceit’ and political motives over its planned closure.

Conservative and Labour councillors locked horns at the Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council meeting with the former demanding the ‘illthought through and unwise’ decision to close the police station of 60 years be reversed.

But Labour councillors said Tory council leader, Cllr Simon Ward’s (Four Oaks), motion was ‘deceitful’ and the town would be one of the few places in the region to get a ‘new police station’.

The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Simon

Foster, announced last month that he was approving West Midlands Police Chief Constable David Thompson’s decision to close the town’s Lichfield Road site.

Mr Foster, who was elected in May this year, had requested a review of plans to close 24 police buildings, first announced in February 2018, in a bid to save £5 million a year in maintenance costs.

The Sutton site was said to cost more than £260,000 a year to run, with a building maintenance backlog of more than £370,000. A fresh 2021 review carried out by the Chief Constable concluded that it should still close, with neighbourhood teams and a public contact office located locally.

But angry Conservatives, including Sutton MP Andrew Mitchell, railed against the decision amid fears it would go from a police station to a ‘desk at the library’.

A motion by Cllr Ward called for reassurance of a ‘fully operational police officer-staffed permanent police hub’ in Sutton.

He called for more police in Sutton ‘not less’ with the West Midlands force recruiting 867 new officers.

An amendment proposed by Cllr Rob Pocock (Lab, Vesey) for councillors to ‘welcome’ the PCC’s decision to ‘retain a more efficient police station’ in Sutton was rejected by Sutton’s mayor and meeting chairman, Cllr Terry Wood, before any debate.

Cllr Ward said: “We are the servants of the residents of our town not our political masters in the rest of the West Midlands.

“This is about Labour letting down our Royal Town yet again. This is what Birmingham City Council have done to us and our town for years. We must fight this outrageous decision.”

But Sutton’s Labour contingent claimed the proposed motion was ‘deliberately deceptive’. Coun Pocock said: “This resolution is so deceitful as to be leading the town council in to disrepute.”

All 15 Tory councillors backed the motion with the four Labour opposition councillors voting in vain against. The closure will not take place before winter 2025.