A POLICE commissioner has revealed how fewer people going away on holiday this year has seen the force’s phone lines being deluged “with everybody complaining about each other”.

North Yorkshire’s police, fire and crime commissioner Philip Allott said as a result of the pandemic on some days last month the force got record numbers of 999 and non-emergency 101 calls, even more than they do on the traditional busiest days of the year, such as New Year’s Eve.

Mr Allott was responding to fresh criticisms of the force’s 101 line at a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s corporate and partnerships scrutiny committee.

North Yorkshire’s 101 line has often struggled to meet demand since it was was introduced in 2011 as a national measure to ease demand on 999.

 Mr Allott said the situation had been exacerbated by far fewer people going on holiday and neighbours irritating each other. 

He said: “So you’ve got a record number of people complaining about each other. The pandemic has created a lot of these record call numbers at a time when nobody else is willing to pick these calls up."

He added the 101 number was being used for non-policing issues and officers were having to deal with time-consuming calls over matters such as noise, which was the responsibility of council environmental health officers.