Plans for new Black Country police HQ to be submitted later this year
Formal plans for a new police 'super station' in the Black Country are set to be submitted later this year, it can be revealed.
West Midlands Police wants to build a station on land off Hall Street, Dudley, but the project has been hit with a series of stumbling blocks over legal issues.
Now it appears that movement could be on the horizon, after Dudley North MP Marco Longhi said he was hopeful that a planning application would be submitted in September.
The station will serve as a police headquarters for the Black Country, and will also be a replacement for the town's old station on New Street, which closed in 2017 and is set to be transformed into flats.
Dozens of police stations have closed across the region in recent years as part of cost-cutting measures.
Hopes of progress on the new site in Dudley were raised after a meeting was held between Mr Longhi, Dudley Council leader Patrick Harley and the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).
Conservative MP Mr Longhi said he was determined to see work start on the project this year and that up to now there had been "too much talk and not enough action".
He said council chiefs were "fully behind" the station, which he believed would "form a fundamental part of the community" and "act as a key gateway for community engagement to help tackle crime".
Mr Longhi said: "I am pleased to say there has been progress after the talks I put together. We’re hopeful of a planning application in September."
He has urged recently elected Labour PCC Simon Foster not to "drag his feet" and to get behind the project.
Mr Foster is currently examining West Midlands Police’s Estates Programme, which has seen more than 20 Black Country police stations shut down in recent years.
Speaking in March West Midlands Police Chief Constable Sir David Thompson said the force was "very, very keen" to build the station, and that delays were down to "legal complexities" around the site.
The land, which sits next to Alan Nuttall Ltd, was earmarked for a mosque for years but the scheme was scrapped in 2017.
Last week planning officers in Dudley gave the green light for 14 flats to be built at the old New Street site.
