A COUNCILLOR has criticised the Police and Crime Commissioner for inaction on the non-emergency phone service and failure to respond to interested parties.

City of York Councillor Ashley Mason is vice chair of the North Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel, and wrote to Julia Mulligan about the ongoing problems in the control room, as well as her failure to respond to concerns raised by Haxby Town Council more than a month ago.

He wrote: “Having been vice chair of the Police and Crime Panel for over two years I have been dismayed not to see any tangible improvement in the 101 service – and in fact an apparent decline in the service residents are receiving. Despite the hard work of dedicated staff, which I saw first-hand on my recent visit to the Control Room in York, we still hear reports of long delays to report crime and anti-social behaviour via the 101 number.

“The lack of police visibility on the streets and the difficult in getting a response via telephone is a real concern for residents. To take one of many recent examples I was astonished to learn that the clerk of Haxby Town Council has not had a reply to his email of September 11, where he outlines his own problems using the 101 number.”

Cllr Mason said Mrs Mulligan’s lack of response to Haxby Town Council reinforced his concern “that this problem is not being taken seriously”, and called on the PCC to publish a plan setting out how she would urgently improve the 101 service.

Mrs Mulligan said she had apologised to the town council for the tardy response, which “was due to a member of staff being away”, and acknowledged “it is still not satisfactory”, and “we are improving our systems to help ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again”.

She said the 101 issues were a priority and “more staff have been recruited, and technology and training issues are being addressed, although it will take time”. A new callback facility was working well in the face of increased call numbers, she said.

Mrs Mulligan said: “Whilst I am far from happy at the current levels of service for 101, I am satisfied that North Yorkshire Police are addressing the issues, but it will take them some time. To this end, I am keeping their plans under constant review and I’m reporting back monthly to the public via my live-streamed Public Accountability Meetings, which anyone can watch online or catch up on via my website.”