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Police have urged people to think before dialling 999 after receiving a call about someone not doing their recycling.

The Avon and Somerset police control room tweeted yesterday (August 16): "Whilst we agree that more focus should be paid towards climate change; calling 999 to report your neighbour isn't recycling isn't an emergency."

This was followed by the hashtags 'tbl' [thin blue line] and 'think999'.

It is far from the first time Avon and Somerset police have received a call that wasted their time. The force has in the past used April Fool's Day as an opportunity to share some of the hoax and unwarranted calls it gets.

In 2018 a boy used up more than a minute of a call handler’s time to ask for condoms. Another person called up to ask if witchcraft was a crime.

An force spokesperson said last year: “We get about 2,800 hoax calls a year. That's an average of seven every day. This is time we could be spending dealing with emergencies.

“Why not take this opportunity to speak to your children about only calling 999 in emergencies? Let them know we're here to help, and please make sure they don't prank our call handlers.

“This call [asking about condoms] lasted one minute and 31 seconds. That might not sound like a lot, but in an emergency, every second counts.

“This is one minute and 31 seconds our 999 call handler could’ve spent saving someone’s life."

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