THE Pioneer is working with Ellesmere Port police to clamp down on people making hoax 999 calls.

We have teamed up with divisional officers to promote their year-long targeted campaign to drive down the high number of time-wasting calls they receive each week.

Between April 1, 2003 and March 31 this year, more than 1,500 hoax or abandoned calls were made in the borough, about 55% from telephone boxes.

Constable Pete Manser, co-ordinator of the Ellesmere Port & Neston Community Action Team, said: 'An immense amount of police resources, time and money is being wasted dealing with these prank calls.

'We aim to attend every 999 call we receive. Unless we have CCTV cameras around a phone box, we don't know it's a hoax call until we get there.'

Crucially, this means police resources are being diverted from genuine incidents and emergencies, and lives could be put at risk.

PC Manser estimates at least 170 hours of police time is wasted by hoax callers every year.

He added: 'We won't stand for this any longer.

'We know which phone boxes are being used and when. We are going to get tough on people who abuse the emergency call system.'

The offence of making hoax calls carries a maximum of six months in prison and a substantial fine.

The division's crime reduction advisor Keith Parsonage said a number of hotspots have already been identified, and will be closely monitored throughout the campaign.

He said: 'These are mostly around schools in the borough, and mainly occur in lunch hours and the end of the school day.

'To the youngsters who make them, it's just a prank. But to everyone else, there's a lot of work involved in checking them out, because we never know if they could be genuine emergencies.

'The public always say there aren't enough police on the beat, but there would be if we weren't attending to so many hoax calls.'

Other hoax calls are made by adults and children, from their homes, as well as from mobiles.

But police acknowledge the majority of calls come from children in phone boxes, which is why their schools liaison officer PC Liz Stanton is taking the message around all schools in the borough. She will talk to them and show them a hard-hitting video.

She is also asking pupils to design a sticker for the campaign, similar to one produced by youngsters in Crewe last year. Details on this will be provided later in the Pioneer, and we will also publish the winning entries.

Cheshire County Council youth worker Kathy Fitzpatrick, who is based at The Hub in Whitby Road, will be taking the message to youngsters there.

She said: 'We are very happy to be supporting this vital scheme.'

The final stage of the campaign comes next January when any persistent offenders who have been identified by police will be prosecuted.