AMBULANCE and police services in Lancashire have been forced to deal with hundreds more hoax callers than last year, new figures have revealed.

In the first six months of this year, the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) received 1,114 hoax calls, compared to 1,026 in the same period last year.

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Lancashire Police meanwhile received 691 hoax calls during July this year, up from 520 last July. However, the number of ‘malicious false alarms’ Lancashire Fire and Rescue has received has continued to decrease year on year since 2011.

The emergency services are now urging residents to stop wasting police and ambulance time.

A Lancashire Police spokesman said: “The 999 system exists in case of emergency.

“It is intended to be used only when there is a crime in progress or where life is at risk.

“Some people are ringing the number when there is no need to and this is simply not acceptable.

“As communications operators are dealing with these 999 calls, people in genuine need of emergency help may well be trying to get through.

“At best, these types of irresponsible calls are wasting valuable time and at the very worst, they could ultimately cost lives.”

A spokesperson for NWAS said: “Making a 999 call for anything other than for a life-threatening or serious emergency undoubtedly puts lives at risk by taking up valuable time and resources.

“Our emergency control centres receive more than 3,000 calls every day and only a relatively low number are hoax calls compared to the number of calls for real incidents.”

Lancashire police has also seen a rise in the number of incidents it has dealt with since this time last year, up from 41,322 to 44,536.

This July, police were called to 44,536 incidents, 1.6 per cent of which were hoax calls, while last July they attended 41,322.

Hoax calls to the fire service have dropped dramatically in the past five years going from 223 in 2011 to only 63 so far this year.

A spokesman for Lancashire Fire and Rescue said: “We don’t get the type of ‘time waste’ calls of the sort the police do, such as ‘I can’t change the channel on my TV’.

“We’re sometimes challenged about rescuing birds stuck in chimneys, hamsters down the back of kitchen cupboards, cats up trees and the like but that debate aside, they’re legitimate calls and most are attended first by the RSPCA who make the call to fire and rescue if needed.”