Police have urged people not to call 999 to report breaches of the hosepipe ban in the Harrogate district.

Yorkshire Water announced the ban this month following days of dry weather and high temperatures.

It comes into force today and is the first hosepipe ban in the area since 1995.

Now, North Yorkshire Police has urged the public not to report any breaches to the force.

Police said in a statement that any flouting of the ban was a civil matter not a criminal one and any calls would divert handlers away from “real emergencies”.

The force said:

“In other parts of the county, we’ve already seen colleagues receiving hundreds of 999 calls about the hosepipe bans, even before restrictions come into place.

“But the hosepipe ban is a civil matter, not a criminal one, and should not be reported to the police.

“And crucially, every call made to the police about the hosepipe ban is diverting our call handlers away from dealing with real emergencies.”

Police have urged people to follow advice on the Yorkshire Water website if they suspect potential breaches of the ban.

It comes as the Harrogate district is officially in drought following long spells of dry weather this summer.

Read more:

• Hosepipe ban introduced for Harrogate district
• Harrogate district now officially in drought

The Environment Agency declared the drought status last week. The last drought in Yorkshire was declared in autumn 2018.

On the hosepipe ban, Neil Dewis, director of water at Yorkshire Water, said:

“Parts of Yorkshire have seen the lowest rainfall since our records began more than 130 years ago.

“The hot, dry, weather means that Yorkshire’s rivers are running low and our reservoirs are around 20% lower than we would expect for this time of year.

“We’ve been doing everything we can to avoid putting in restrictions but unfortunately, they’re now necessary as part of our drought planning.”

The hosepipe ban includes:

Watering a garden using a hosepipe
Cleaning vehicles or boats using a hosepipe
Watering plants with a hosepipe
Filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool
Drawing water, using a hosepipe, for domestic recreational use
Cleaning walls or windows of domestic premises using a hosepipe
Cleaning paths or patios using a hosepipe
Cleaning other artificial outdoor surfaces using a hosepipe

People can still undertake these activities without using a hosepipe if they use tap water from a bucket or watering can; or use water that is not sourced from taps such as grey water, rainwater from a water butt, or a private borehole, for example.

Businesses will be allowed to use a hosepipe if it is directly related to a commercial purpose.

There are restrictions on using a hosepipe if not for those essential commercial needs – so using a hosepipe to clean a path outside a business property, for example, would not be allowed.

Blue badge holders, those on Yorkshire Water’s Priority Services register or WaterSure tariff for medical reasons, are also excluded from the ban.

More information is available here.

New figures show that North Yorkshire Police is now the worst police force for responding to 999 calls.

Forces are expected to meet the Home Office target of answering 90% of emergency calls within 10 seconds.

Home Office data showed that, in July, North Yorkshire only managed this 39.9% of the time.

The best performing force was Nottinghamshire Police, which achieved 87% – still below the 90% target.

North Yorkshire Police has often been close to the foot of the table but this was the second month in a row when it was actually last.

The force’s own statistics show its latest average 999 response time for the month of July was 20 seconds. This was higher than its 36-month average of 18.84 seconds.

The figures will come under the spotlight at the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner’s monthly public accountability meeting next Tuesday, August 30.

Data published by the commissioner’s office in advance of the meeting revealed the number of 999 calls increased by 8% in July 2022 compared with the same month last year.

Zoe Metcalfe, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

‘A huge increase’

The North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner’s office was approached for comment on the slow response times but a spokesman said the issue would be discussed at next week’s meeting.

Commissioner Zoë Metcalfe told the Stray Ferret in June that she was working to reduce delays in answering 101 and 999 calls in the police control room.

She said there had been a “huge increase” in 999 and non-emergency 101 calls.

Ms Metcalfe has pledged £140,000 to increase the number of staff working in the force control room.

North Yorkshire Police will be tweeting about every incident handled by its control room in 12 hours from this afternoon.

The “tweetathon” is designed to give the public a taste of the calls that come in to the force and will begin at 2pm today, running through to the early hours of tomorrow.

It is designed to show the public the number and variety of calls made to police via 999 and the non-emergency 101 number.

Posting about the tweetathon, the force said:

Yorkshire Ambulance Service has urged people to only call 999 for serious or life threatening injuries because it is under “extreme pressure”.

YAS, which covers the Harrogate district, said in a statement it was operating on Resource Escalation Plan 4.

This is the equivalent to Black Alert for hospitals and is only declared when an ambulance service can no longer effectively deliver a service due, typically due to a major incident

All 10 ambulance trusts in the country have now declared a similar status.

Staff shortages and hot weather are among the reasons.

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YAS has asked people to consider contacting their GP, pharmacy or practise self-care as alternative options to the ambulance service.

A spokesperson for YAS said:

“An extremely high volume of calls is currently having a significant impact on both our 999 and NHS 111 operations.

“We have taken the decision to move to REAP Level 4, our highest level of escalation, and while the situation is being managed in line with the plans that we have in place to protect our core services, unfortunately there are patients who are facing delays and we are very sorry that we are unable to respond to them as quickly as we would like.

“All emergency calls are categorised according to the nature of a patient’s illness or injury and those in a life-threatening condition are always prioritised. It’s important that members of the public only call 999 for an ambulance when it is a serious or life-threatening emergency. This will help us to focus our efforts on our most poorly patients.

“You can also help us by not calling back to check where the ambulance is as we need those phone lines to be free for those in a life-threatening condition. However, if the condition of the patient changes or if you feel you no longer need an ambulance, it’s important that you let us know.

“For anyone with less serious illnesses and injuries, they should consider self-care, their local pharmacy, GP surgery, urgent care centre or making their own way to the emergency department. Our NHS 111 service is also available online at 111.nhs.uk or by calling 111.

“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and thank all our hard-working staff and volunteers for their efforts at this challenging time.”

A government league table has revealed that North Yorkshire Police is the fourth slowest of 44 forces in the UK at responding to 999 calls.

The table, published by the Home Office today, shows North Yorkshire Police answered just 44% of 999 calls within the 10-second target in the last six months.

Police forces are required to answer 90% of emergency calls within 10 seconds.

The data, which covers from November 1, 2021, until April 30, 2022, shows that on average the force in North Yorkshire take 29.7 seconds to answer 999 calls.

A total of 43% of 999 calls are answered between 10 and 60 seconds.

Only Avon and Somerset police reached the 90% target, while Humberside Police was the worst with just 2% of calls answered on time.

Durham and South Yorkshire were the only other worse performing constabularies than North Yorkshire.

In response to the data, Lindsey Butterfield, North Yorkshire Police’s lead for contact management, said:

“Whilst there are a number of factors which impact on the speed at which 999 calls are answered, we recognise that we are not staffed to meet our current elevated levels of demand and we are investing in a number of measures to make improvements and get calls answered quicker.

“This includes putting in place enhanced recruitment plans for more staff within our force control room. We expect to have recruited 10% above our establishment by September 2022. The additional 10% allows for the levels of staff turnover that we experience.

“We have also established a pool of reserve staff to deal with administrative tasks on behalf of the call takers in the force control room. The additional costs for these interim arrangements have been funded by North Yorkshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

“The dedicated team of staff who handle our calls within our force control room work incredibly hard, in a very challenging environment. We will be recruiting for our next intake very shortly so if you or someone you know is interested in joining the team, please keep an eye on the jobs section of our website or register your interest via our vacancies page.”

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The Home Office figures are the first time that performance for answering 999 calls from each police force has been published.

Priti Patel, Home Secretary, said:

“Calling 999 can literally be a matter of life and death. The public deserve to know that their local police force will be at the end of the phone, ready to leap into action at seconds’ notice to protect them from harm.

“Fundamentally, publishing this data is about driving up standards in our incredible emergency services even further, so that the public can have every confidence in the police’s ability to save lives and keep our streets safe.

“We can now see where forces are excelling and where vital improvements need to be made and I thank the police for their commitment to ensuring we maintain the best emergency services in the world.”

Harrogate district residents are being urged to tell police chiefs about their experiences of the non-emergency 101 and emergency 999 services.

It follows long-running concerns in the district about the length of time it takes to answer the calls.

The police contact survey opened on Wednesday and runs until June 26.

The survey, run by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, will inform police forces, the Home Office and local crime commissioners on any challenges around reporting to the police.

Participants answer questions testing their understanding of emergency and non-emergency reporting systems, as well as newly emerging ways of contacting the police, like web chat, online forms and messaging over social media.

Zoë Metcalfe

Zoë Metcalfe, the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said:

“Reporting to 101 and 999 remains a challenging area of business for police forces across the country. The needs of those making contact must be understood, and we must prioritise those most in need.

“I have expressed my concerns to the Chief Constable regarding poor call handling times. The Chief Constable and I are committed to significantly improving the customer contact experience and call handling times, and will monitor performance closely with the aim to improve the service as a priority. This will also include the call-waiting times for the non-emergency 101 service.”

Read more:

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• Commissioner Candidates questioned: the 101 call system ‘not fit for purpose’

Ms Metcalfe’s predecessor, Philip Allott, was told by North Yorkshire county councillors last year that the non-emergency line was “not fit for purpose and it hasn’t been fit for purpose for the last eight years” and that “the phone just doesn’t get answered”.

Ms Metcalfe will discuss North Yorkshire’s force control room’s performance in her next public accountability meeting on Tuesday.

Members of the public can submit questions in advance of the meeting via email to info@northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk. They should include their name and address.

You can take part in the public contact survey here.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service said today it was critically busy and urged people only to call in the most serious circumstances.

Nick Smith, executive director of operations at Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said in a series of tweets:

“We are currently experiencing extremely high demand and this is having a severe impact on our operations. We are implementing a number of actions in order to protect our core services for patients and respond to the ongoing demand.

“We are asking members of the public to only call us in a serious or life-threatening emergency to help us focus our efforts on our most poorly patients.”

“Our dedicated staff are working extremely hard to reach patients as quickly and safely as possible.”

Nick Smith

Elliott Carter, a 999 emergency medical dispatcher in the emergency operations centre for Yorkshire Ambulance Service, asked people to consider making their own way to emergency departments.

‼️We are CRITICALLY BUSY at present‼️Please do only call us for immediate life saving help. Do consider, if safe to do so – making your own way to the Emergency Department. This enables us to send our Ambulances to people who desperately need them. #ChooseWell @YorksAmbulance pic.twitter.com/PFSZc0yWbF

— Elliott Carter (@YAS_ElliottC) July 4, 2021

Yorkshire Ambulance Service tweeted that it was “extremely busy this afternoon” and added the NHS Health A to Z was a good resource for information and advice on health conditions and how to get help.

It asked people to “use our services wisely”, adding.

“Emergency ambulances are for life-threatening and serious incidents only. For urgent medical advice, please use NHS 111 Online at 111.nhs.uk.”

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