THE police control room is not providing an acceptable service to the public, according to the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Julia Mulligan said she was "disheartened" to hear the force had to ask the public NOT to contact them with non-emergencies again this week, following a major computer breakdown in the force control room.

North Yorkshire Police were forced to send out a message by social media on Wednesday night after call takers had to operate using pen and paper rather than computers, urging the public not to contact them unless they were experiencing an emergency.

Mrs Mulligan said she was grateful that the latest "technical issue" in the control room did not affect calls to the 999 service, and she was pleased to hear the force was putting steps in place to tackle the problem.

She said: "Despite this, I have received numerous complaints about the length of time callers are being kept waiting on a regular basis and this just isn’t good enough. It’s a real issue that the force needs to resolve."

Mrs Mulligan said the accepted that the latest technical issue "was completely unexpected", but "it follows on from a number of failures caused by insufficient staffing numbers, IT problems and a huge increase in demand, a problem which is being experienced nationally".

This, she said, meant residents in North Yorkshire were not receiving the care or service they should expect.

She said: "The force has an urgent duty of care and I don’t think it is currently providing an acceptable service to the public.

"I acknowledge that a lot needs to be done and that solutions are being put in place but sadly there is no immediate solution. NYP needs to invest in long term measures that will prevent further delays and meet changes in demand in the future. This is why I have asked the police to report the progress they are meeting not only to me, but also directly to the public on a monthly basis via my live streamed Public Accountability Meetings."

Councillor Ashley Mason sits on the Police and Crime Panel and has previously spoken out about the problems with the 101 number, lengthy call waiting times and inadequacies with the force.

He said something needed to be done soon to ensure the public had faith in the non-emergency number, and a target should be set to run alongside the monthly progress updates.

He said: "I want to see a public declaration saying the public should have phone calls answered in a reasonable time.

"Even something to say how long you might be waiting at least if you know how many people you have got ahead of you, you might not hang up straight away."