A NEW police officer and three PCSOs will be joining Halesowen's policing team after councillors raised concerns about the size of the team compared to other town's.

Halesowen North councillors Parmjit Sahota and Hilary Bills Concerns raised their worries about the understaffing of the Halesowen Neighbourhood policing team, compared to other parts of Dudley with the force, which is now taking action.

West Midlands Police has announced that a police constable and three new police community support officers (PCSOs) will be joining the team, bringing it up to a par with other similar-sized towns.

The news means residents will see more bobbies on the beat. 

Superintendent Gill Davenport from Dudley Police said: “We know that people want to see more officers patrolling their neighbourhoods and through our Workforce Strategy Group, which looks at our staffing resource, we identified the challenges in Halesowen, which local councillors had highlighted to us.

“We’re pleased to report that three newly recruited PCSOs are due to start with the Halesowen team once they’re through their training period.

"They’ll be joining the neighbourhood sergeant and her team of four constables, which will be further bolstered by another constable in April.

“The recruitment, retention and deployment of officers is regularly reviewed across the force area.

"We welcome the opportunity to discuss our workforce plans and local policing priorities with councillors, partners and the wider community.”

Labour councillors, Parmjit and Hilary have been holding regular meetings with the Halesowen Neighbourhood policing team and senior Dudley officers for several years where they have highlighted resident’s concerns such as anti-social behaviour, speeding traffic and drug-related issues.

Parmjit said: “This is great news following our campaign highlighting the understaffing for our ward and Halesowen as a whole.

"The Police will also be looking into our suggestion about better working with Sandwell Police and British Transport Police to tackle cross border crimes such as drug running or 'county lines' at and near our train stations."

Hilary said: “It was down to Cllr Sahota’s forensic analysis of policing numbers across Dudley and my local policing knowledge over many years in our ward that we have been able to argue successfully for more police officers in Halesowen.”