POLICE chiefs are pulling the plug on a beat bobby's telephone number - after a local directory got its wires crossed.

A re-organisation of the police phone network throughout Greater Manchester has left a one-man station as Bolton's only contact number.

But the station listed in the Thompson Local Directory does not even cover the town!

The mistake has left a bemused Lancashire police officer, based at Turton Police Station, besieged with callers from the Bolton area trying to contact his colleagues in Greater Manchester.

In a bid to stop calls flooding into the local police station in Embankment Road, Turton, police chiefs in Lancashire have now decided to change the phone number.

The mistake has been made following the decision of Greater Manchester Police to scrap local numbers and to direct calls through centralised switchboard.

The publishers of the latest Thompson directory for the Bolton area - now being distributed throughout the town - obtained a list of local phone numbers. It resulted in only one telephone number being printed for Bolton...the hotline to Turton Police Station.

But PC Steve Wilkinson, who is based at the station, actually only covers Turton, Edgworth, Chapeltown and Belmont as a member of the Lancashire Constabulary.

A spokesman for the Thompson Local Directory said the matter is being investigated.

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