MORE than 100 calls a day to North Yorkshire Police were abandoned over nine months last year, as control room staff struggled to cope with demand.

Almost one in eight non-emergency calls to the force were abandoned without being answered between April and December last year, nearly double the national average.

In the same period, there were 53,779 calls to the 999 emergency number, with the average time taken to answer 8.03 seconds - faster than the target timescale of ten seconds, and an improvement on the previous year, although North Yorkshire Police were unable to immediately provide the previous amount.

However, figures released last week showed the average answer speed of a 101 call by the force control room was 90 seconds - almost double the national average of 48 seconds. Worse still, of the 224,138 calls made to the 101 number, 30,258 were abandoned - amounting to 13.5 per cent, more than double the national average of 6.3 per cent.

A report into the call handling stated that forces around the country had reported increased demand and longer waiting times throughout 2016, but satisfaction “remains high with more than eight in ten victims satisfied with service”.

However, the performance of the control room has been “outside normal range since July 2016”, although performance improved in December due to a lower number of non-emergency calls.

Superintendent Dave Hannan said “999 performance continues to improve. There are some issues still around 101, we’re quite aware of those.”

A police spokeswoman said the force control room (FCR) was “a key area of operational business” and the force “repeatedly review the performance” of call handling.

She said: “We aim to increase the performance of the FCR on a continual basis and any gaps in resources are addressed quickly and effectively.

“We have recently recruited 16 new members of staff, which we are confident will have a positive impact on the effectiveness of our call handling. In addition, the force has recruitment activity planned in February, which will see staff intakes in May, August and October.”

Issues which have affected the FCR performance included temporary vacancies and technology issues, but the spokeswoman said public misuse of the numbers was also part of the problem.

She said: “We recognise there is also some work to be done around educating the public on when to call 999 and when it should be 101.

“We have conducted various communications messages surrounding the 101 number, with an aim to reducing 999 calls which are not emergencies. Further public communications are planned for this.”

Police and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan said “every effort is being made to improve” the 101 service.

She said: “Unfortunately, there is no ‘magic wand’, particularly as there has been a significant increase in demand on the service, which will take time to deal with.”

Mrs Mulligan said new staff, IT improvements and changes to the force website will help the situation and provide new ways to contact police.

She said: “I am confident we will see waiting times and the number of abandoned calls come down gradually.

“I also know that the Chief Constable shares the public’s frustration and is keen to see improvements as well. Needless to say, I will be keeping an extremely close eye on performance and expect to see considerable improvements in the future.”