BUSINESS as usual is the message from the four communications centres which handle all 999 emergency calls in the Merseyside Area.

The centres - including College Street, St Helens - deal with calls that place all types of demands on the operational policing of Merseyside throughout the year, dealing with some 275,000 '999' calls and despatching patrols to each incident.

More than 60 per cent of calls are incidents which did not require the immediate response of a police patrol and a graded response policy, used throughout the year, is a tried and tested means of prioritising calls and the response they receive.

Christmas and the New Year periods place increasing demands on the service that at times may be stretched. Merseyside Police is expecting an unprecedented demand on the evening of the Millennium and will have extra staff in place to deal with the anticipated 30 per cent increase in calls on the night.

WPC Amanda De Gray Birch, part of the St Helens Area Millennium Planning Team, said: "We have been working to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy the Millennium celebrations as safely as possible. Last New Year's Eve we received 200 emergency calls and with the anticipated 30 per cent increase expected on Millennium Eve it will make for an extremely busy night. We are asking for the help of the public at this busy holiday time to use the 999 system thoughtfully. Clearly if only genuine calls are received it will enable us to deliver a first-class service, but if a call does not require immediate police action then it will slow down our response times. "On the Millennium Eve, if your call is not an emergency, please contact your own local incident management unit or, if at all possible, call them the following day. The advice to the public is: 'If you need to call us - please make the right call.'

The St Helens incident management unit can be contacted on 0151 777 6969.

Merseyside Police is confident its computer systems are Millennium compliant and planning for response to incidents has been underway for many months. Preparations for policing the Millennium are in an advanced state and contingency plans will be in place to respond positively and effectively with every eventuality.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.