THE way in which the Police and Crime Commissioner is attempting to sidestep her core function to provide sufficient resources to North Yorkshire’s Chief Constable to ensure that phone calls into the force control room can be handled effectively and efficiently is totally unacceptable (The Press, August 5).

In acknowledging that North Yorkshire Police has an urgent duty of care to provide an acceptable level of service to the public, wringing her hands and calling for monthly reports is simply an abrogation of her responsibility.

Ms Mulligan blames “the force” for the inadequacies of the call handling equipment and the failure to provide sufficient staff to meet the spiralling demands of the police 101 phone system.

In reality, however, under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act of 2011, it is up to her to provide the Chief Constable with sufficient resources to meet the objectives of the police and crime plan agreed with the public - among which an adequate and appropriate response to reported incidents is paramount.

She says there is a need to invest in long term measures to improve the situation - and the public of North Yorkshire who suffer delays in reaching the police would certainly endorse that.

But she is the one who holds the purse strings of money allocated by the Home Office for policing, and she also has statutory authority to raise extra funds via the local policing precept from council tax.

So it’s time to ask what action she is proposing to take to resolve the problems.

Allan Charlesworth, Old Earswick, York