THE head of a police control room based in Abingdon police station raised concerns about the number of time-wasting calls.

Call handlers took 304,000 999 calls last year, a 12 per cent increase on the previous year.

Operations manager Nikki Dumbleton said she wanted to free up as many of her call handlers as possible to deal with serious emergencies.

She said: “Quite a lot of the calls we receive are for other agencies. Abandoned vehicles, for example, which are the responsibility of the council and not police.

“We also get calls about parking issues, which are also now the responsibility of councils.”

In 2017 the control room in Abingdon received 8,000 calls about abandoned vehicles and 15,000 about parking issues.

Perhaps even more alarming is the sheer number of accidental calls that were received.

Last year, 18,000 calls were the result of accidental dials. This could include a mobile dialling 999 while in somebody’s pocket.

Because staff are obligated to try and make contact with any caller, in case there is a genuine emergency, each of these calls can waste about five minutes.

Some of the calls have a more amusing element, but still prevent handlers from dealing with serious emergencies.

Ms Dumbleton continued: “We’ll get calls about lost parrots and cats up trees.”

Abingdon call handlers also work as radio operators.