Without any consultation with Solihull residents, the Labour Police & Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands has signed off the decision to close Solihull Police Station by autumn 2025. This was confirmed in the reports presented to the West Midlands Strategic Policing and Crime Board at its meeting held on the 23rd November.
Solihull residents pay a direct precept to the Police & Crime Commissioner, yet despite nearly 120,000 residents residing in the south of the Borough, our Labour PCC has decided to remove our Police Station.
We have nearly 900 extra police officers in the West Midlands since April this year and this is thanks to extra funding from the Government. So it’s really disappointing that the Labour West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner is still intent on closing Solihull police station. Our Conservative Council Leadership have consistently called for meetings to discuss an alternative building to the Homer Rd site. Solihull Conservatives will continue to fight this decision and call on the Labour PCC to work with our Council to secure a visible, functioning Police Station in Solihull town centre.
Saqib Bhatti, Member of Parliament for Meriden, said:
It is totally unacceptable that the Labour Police and Crime Commissioner has decided to go ahead with the closure of the Solihull Police Station without any provisions in place for replacement services.
I am concerned about the additional pressures this is going to place on Chelmsley Wood Police Station in my constituency which is already significantly stretched. This decision abandons a significant part of the Borough which will lead to an increase in crime and will affect all of us. Clearly this is a PCC who is out of touch with the north and the south of Solihull.
The people of Solihull Borough deserve far better than to have this essential service removed from the community. A local police station is essential to tackling crime locally and I am calling on the PCC to immediately reverse this decision.
Local resident and Member of Parliament for Solihull, Julian Knight, said:
"We are now in a situation where a borough of over 200,000 people face their main police station in their town centre being closed with no replacement, which is against the pledge made by the previous police and crime commissioner. The police and crime commissioner, like his predecessor, is letting us down once again. We pay more than our fair share in council tax in order to keep police well funded in the West Midlands."
Please sign our petition to send a clear message to the Labour Police & Crims Commissioner that Solihull deserves to have a permanent Police Station in the south of the Borough. Every name on this petition will strengthen our hand when negotiating with the Commissioner on this extremely important matter.
