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Above: Speaking in the adjournment debate I arranged this week in the House of Commons about the threat to Sutton Coldfield Police Station, which has been put up for sale by our region’s Labour Police and Crime Commissioner. I was glad to have the support of Wendy Morton, MP for neighbouring Aldridge-Brownhills, who told the Chamber that Sutton police station covers much more than just the Royal Town, but also parts of her constituency, such as Streetly.
With Parliament back in session this week, I hit the ground running with perhaps the most high-profile debate on a vital Sutton Coldfield issue in a decade.
Concerns over the threat to Sutton Coldfield Police Station were voiced at the highest level, when a special Adjournment Debate was held in the House of Commons.
I called for this highly unusual debate after Sutton residents were angered by the sudden appearance of ‘for sale’ signs outside the Police Station, after no consultation whatsoever by the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).
The whole point of having a PCC is that they represent us - the public - to the police. If they merely represent the police to us, they become an expensive irrelevance. That is one of the reasons I supported putting the PCC role under the regional mayor.
Unfortunately, the PCC still refuses to do his job by meeting Sutton Coldfield Town Council to answer questions over his plan.
In the debate, I was pleased to be supported by my colleague Wendy Morton, MP for neighbouring Aldridge-Brownhills, who shared her concerns over the closure plans and the lack of transparency.
Debates such as this are highly unusual – the last one I requested was to confirm our town’s ‘Royal’ status’ – but the situation regarding our Police station is so concerning, I felt it was necessary to raise it in Parliament.
Below is my full speech on the future of Sutton Coldfield Police Station. I urge you to read it, and hope you agree that it makes a powerful and compelling argument against this potentially hugely damaging plan.
My Commons speech on Sutton Coldfield Police Station in full
“It is not often I see so many Members in the House when I talk about the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, but it is a great honour to see so many here tonight. It is not often, either, that I have needed to raise a constituency matter on the Adjournment of the House, but the subject I address today is of such grave importance to my constituents and to the future security of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield that it demands urgent ministerial attention at the Dispatch Box.
The last time I held an Adjournment debate was in respect of the reassertion of the Royal status of Sutton Coldfield. On that occasion, the Government made clear our right to use the word “royal” in the title of our town, and my constituents were grateful and deeply honoured by the reassertion of the royal status that we have now enjoyed for 496 years. Today, 10 years later, I am once again extremely grateful to Mr Speaker for granting me this debate on the subject of the proposed closure of the Royal Sutton Coldfield police station. This proposal is being peddled by the Labour Police and Crime Commissioner and has appalled virtually all my constituents and appears to be supported only by two Labour councillors in the royal town.
The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield has more than 100,000 inhabitants. We also host the second biggest new housing development in the country — around 5,500 new homes in the Langley area. A town of this size requires a fully equipped, proactive and professional police station, housing all manner of relevant police assets. Our current police station has protected our town since 1960 and sits on the main road into the town centre, giving police officers immediate access.
Core policing means local policing, serving our community by dealing with all policing issues, reassuring the community and offering a safe refuge to victims of crime and harassment. Core policing is about a 24/7 response, where officers work locally to cover response calls and know their areas and the local ‘hoods’ and villains. It is about a locally based criminal investigation department that can provide qualified investigators who focus on locally reported crimes, from minor offences to major crimes, such as robbery, serious assault and burglary.
Investigators become aware of local crimes and emerging problems through locally based intelligence. Neighbourhood officers know local issues and problems. They deal with minor offences and antisocial behaviour, providing proper reassurance to the local community. Our excellent Business Improvement District, led by Michelle Baker, which helps drive progress in the town centre, continually warns about the dangers of shoplifting and antisocial behaviour.
The police deal with local offenders, including sex offenders. They work with all agencies — probation services, social services, children’s services, the NHS and fire services — to address local issues. There are specially trained officers working with partner agencies, and they need privacy to work with victims of domestic violence and sex crimes, who need an appropriately sized safe space. A town of 100,000 souls and rising deserves all of that, and, in our case, we pay for it. The residents of Sutton Coldfield pay £8 million into the police precept every year. The estimated running cost of £303,000 a year for the current station represents less than 4% of the annual local police precept. I mention in passing that £20 million was found to renovate and embellish the police headquarters at Lloyd House.
Over recent years, I have made it crystal clear to my constituents, who so generously re-elected me at the last General Election, that I would do my best to prevent any closure or any diminution in police activity in the Royal Town. I was very pleased to see that pledge mirrored in the election material produced by the newly elected Labour West Midlands Mayor, who pledged to halt the closure of all 27 police stations throughout the West Midlands.
He clearly has little influence with his Labour colleague. Not even a fortnight after the general election, I was astonished to see a “For Sale” sign in front of our police station. Neither I, as the Member of Parliament, members of the Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council nor any of our councillors were informed. Back in March 2023, there were promises by the PCC of consultation with our Town Council. Mr Speaker has made it clear that he wants to see greater respect for politics and politicians, but how can that noble aim be achieved when we see this sort of cynical, manipulative disregard of the wishes of the local people by those elected to serve our interests?
I have no doubt that some will argue that such a decision is an operational matter for the police. The whole point of Police and Crime Commissioners is that they should represent the wishes of local people, and speak up for us in respect of policing decisions. I was a member of the Cabinet that introduced police and crime commissioners, and I have to say that in my view the jury is out on whether they have been a successful reform to our law and order architecture. If Police and Crime Commissioners are captured by the local police establishment, that reform is by definition a failure. They are meant to represent us to the police, not the police to us. They are our servants, not our masters.
On the subject of consultation, the perfectly fair and legitimate request by myself and the leader of the Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council, Mr Simon Ward, for the Police and Crime Commissioner to come before the Town Council and answer questions from the councillors and public has been turned down. Instead, he wants a behind-closed-doors meeting with me, the leader of the council and a couple of other councillors.
No! We want genuine public consultation — transparency, not behind-closed-doors private meetings.
I fully understand the need for value for money, and that the Royal Sutton Coldfield Police Station is at present inadequately used. Indeed, for many years at Christmas I visited our local police station to dispense House of Commons fudge and humbugs to the hard-working officers and staff who work there. Over recent years, the consumption of fudge and humbugs has diminished as resources have been taken away from the station, but instead of denuding police services from a significant location in a key strategic part of the West Midlands to the north-east of Birmingham, the police service should be looking at basing far more of the services that I described earlier in a strategic hub, building on the advantage of a significant space in Sutton Coldfield, rather than trying to flog it off.
Our police station was once an Operational Command Unit for the West Midlands Police, which now looks set to be reduced to a refit of three small dilapidated semi-detached houses. What a contrast to the brilliant West Midlands Fire Service, which has invested in its strategic location in the Royal Town, adjacent to the police station.
Before anyone suggests that this is all down to the wicked Tories mercilessly culling budgets, consider these four facts: funding for the West Midlands Police has been increased by nearly £40 million, taking the annual police budget to £629.2 million; we have recruited an extra 2,176 police officers; we have invested £24 million in violence reduction units in the West Midlands, to tackle the most devastating crime and put the worst criminals behind bars; and we have invested £9 million in the West Midlands through the safer streets fund.
During the course of the campaign to save the police station, I have had the benefit of advice from several former West Midlands police officers responsible for policing in the Royal Town. I thank them for their years of diligent service and for their insights and advice. They told me that they were totally opposed to the closure of the police station, and that this was their professional opinion and advice. They made it clear that they opposed the loss of a significant visible deterrent and the easy access to a fast-redeveloping town centre, with the recent reopening of the Royal Cinema — probably the finest boutique cinema anywhere in the UK — and the purchase of the Gracechurch Shopping Centre, as well as the millions of pounds of investment secured under the previous Conservative Government.
All that adds to the case for more policing in Sutton Coldfield. The loss of our police station will mean a significant reduction in services and a diminution of policing. The loss of the custody cells, currently mothballed, comes at a time when we have seen, from the recent disgraceful rioting and demonstrations, that circumstances could arise where there would be a strategic need for such things. Those regionally strategic facilities should not easily be disregarded. It is not that long ago that the expensive facilities were provided; indeed, I think I performed the opening ceremony. That strategic point is at the heart of the intervention from my right hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton), who rightly talks about the importance of a strategic location north-east of Birmingham, serving both my and her constituents.
The sale of our police station will realise millions of pounds, much of which will clearly not be spent in Sutton Coldfield. In its place we are offered a low-grade option for policing with very limited facilities, selling short the people of Sutton Coldfield: at best, a small public contact centre, comprising three small police houses to the rear of the existing station. That is clearly a wholly inadequate marginal replacement for a proper police station. It is a measure designed to save money and not to enhance policing. It is well known that policing is local or it is nothing, and the proposed closure takes the local out of policing in the town.
The motto of the West Midlands police is ‘Forward in unity’. This decision takes us backwards in great disunity. The PCC’s proposal has been strongly condemned by residents, former police officers, all elected Conservative councillors, senior figures throughout the local community, and by me as their MP. I pay particular tribute to the vigorous campaigning and eloquent arguments put forward by Simon Ward, the leader of Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council, and his hard-working councillors, by our energetic local Birmingham City Conservative councillors, including the highly effective David Pears, and by Jay Singh-Sohal, a former Police and Crime Commissioner candidate with immense experience of policing issues.
However, those are but the tip of a huge local campaign, vigorously supported and engaged in across my constituency. On the day of the disastrous announcement of the sale of the police station, I received a letter in the post from the PCC — not addressing the pressing matter, but instead discussing his hopes on matters such as community policing. For community policing to be effective, it must take advice from the community it hopes to police and protect, and not press ahead without consulting that community.
With decisions such as this paying such little regard to local opinion and safety requirements, it cannot be a surprise that West Midlands Police were placed under special measures under the Labour Police and Crime Commissioner. Until he starts working alongside local communities, instead of dictating to them the fate of key services such as the police station, things may only get worse.
The decision to close the Royal Town’s police station is a mistake. I urge the Labour Police and Crime Commissioner to reconsider his stance and to engage with humility, rigour and energy in a proper public consultation with the local people whom he serves, so that he can listen to their concerns directly and honour the West Midlands police mantra of ‘Forward in unity’.”
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