A new campaign has been launched, calling on Avon & Somerset Police to drastically improve their 101 response times.

Peasedown’s Independent Councillors Gavin Heathcote and Karen Walker say the current service ‘isn’t good enough’ as people wanting to report non-emergency incidents are having to wait over an hour for their call to be answered.

Last Monday night, the Councillors were invited to Portishead to meet staff and call handlers at Avon & Somerset Police’s Command and Control Room.

The centre has around 200 operators responding to more than 2,600 calls every day – with 999 emergency incidents and 101 inquiries for the whole county being directed here.

Cllr Gavin Heathcote (Independent, Peasedown) said: “We’re working closely with the police to see what can be done to speed up response times to 101 calls.

“Just recently I needed to report an incident in Peasedown St John, only to be faced with a 1-hour wait for somebody to even pick up the phone. This simply isn’t good enough – members of the public expect a much swifter response from the local police, even to non-emergency inquires.”

On Monday, Gavin and Karen met with Becky Tipper (pictured), Head of Command and Control at Avon & Somerset Police where they were able to share concerns about the forces’ poor response times.

Cllr Karen Walker (Independent, Peasedown St John), added: “Thanks to Becky and her team for allowing us to visit the control centre. We were able to meet some of the operators and hear some of the calls coming into the police incident room from the public.

“We’ll be working closely with Avon & Somerset Police over the coming months to address issues raised with us by our residents.”

For more information about Avon & Somerset Police and reporting crimes visit www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/contact