THE EMERGENCY services reported a quiet night on New Year’s Eve as people avoided the cold weather and stayed in to celebrate.

Chester Inner Neighbourhood Policing Unit said its New Year’s Eve operation was a success – it was on high alert but had only minor incidents to deal with.

Detective Sergeant Barry Brown said: “We had a very successful operation overnight. We had our officers in the right places at the right time.

“Having the same NPU inspector for the past three years has definitely helped as we now have a very smooth operation for what is usually a very busy night.

“We had a number of minor incidents, a couple of minor assaults and confrontations but nothing really of note.

“We had our officers in the right place at the right time to deal with any problems. We know the hot spots for trouble so we put our officers there to deal with it.

“We ran a very similar operation to last year, and had a very successful night.”

Firefighters reported an incident-free New Year’s Eve with Chester and Ellesmere Port Fire crews attending only false alarms throughout the evening.