GREATER Manchester Police understandably discourage the use of the 999 call in any situation other than an emergency and encourage the use of 0161 872 5050 at all other times.

The answering service covers the whole of Greater Manchester and, from my experience, there is a complete lack of any localised knowledge.

The telephone operators make it impossible to speak to a local police station and, to make matters worse, they appear not to have easy access to a map.

The police force in Bury is blessed with their third state of the art facility in my lifetime but access to Greater Manchester police in general seems geared to deterring the general public from assisting with information.

R D Calrow Bolton