Think before calling 999 on New Year's Eve

The switchboard was inundated with nuisance 999 calls last year, South Yorkshire Police said. 

One man called the emergency number to ask for a lift to Bradford because he had no money to get home.

Adele McGowan, deputy head of force communications, said: “We plan resources in advance in order to manage the high number of calls and incidents, which we expect. 

“We are here to help everybody and will always try to advise or send people to the correct agency if it is not us, but please think before you call us if it is not a genuine emergency.

“When people call 999 or 101 for non-police incidents it wastes valuable time, and means people with genuine calls have to wait longer to get through to us.”

Previous years have also seen complaints about fireworks — but these are allowed to be let off between 7am on New Year’s Eve and 1am on New Year’s Day. 

A spokesman added: “Please only call us outside of these times. We are powerless to act at any other time.”