Police handed ultimatum over land deal for 'super station' site in Dudley
A new police 'super station' in the Black Country has been plunged into doubt after West Midlands Police was given an ultimatum over a land deal.
Dudley Council chiefs say they have grown frustrated with the force after failing to agree a price for the proposed site off Hall Street, despite months of negotiations.
The authority has now given West Midlands Police just two weeks to meet its asking price, with bosses threatening to put the land back on the market if no deal is struck.
Dudley Council is understood to have reduced its initial asking price of around £750,000.
Councillor Patrick Harley, leader of Dudley Council, said: "They have been umming and ahing over this deal for far too long and we have now issued an ultimatum.
"While we remain keen to get a police station on this particular site, we are certainly not desperate. We have already lowered our price to the point where we are basically giving the land away.
"I've got developers chewing my ear off trying to get hold of land in Dudley, and if the police don't come up with the right offer and sign on the dotted line we'll put the land back on the market."
Plans for a new station to serve as the force's Black Country headquarters were first revealed in 2019 following a campaign by then Dudley North MP Ian Austin.
It was included in the force's revised estates programme, published in November last year, as a replacement for the Brierley Hill station, which is due to close after autumn 2024.
The site off Hall Street, next to the Alan Nuttall factory, has been derelict for years after plans to build a mosque there never got off the ground.
West Midlands Police is understood to have set aside an initial £1.2 million for the first stages of the project.
A spokesperson for West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster, said: "We remain committed to building a brand new, state of the art police station in the centre of Dudley.
"We urge Dudley Council to do the deal in the interests of the people of Dudley."
The town has been without a police station since the old one on New Street was shut down in 2017 as part of cost-cutting measures.
