FROM Friday there will only be one police non-emergency number available to the people of County Durham and Darlington.

Over the past three weeks all the forces local office phone numbers have been phased out.

Anyone dialling the discontinued lines will not be charged for the call and will hear a recorded message advising them to dial 0845 6060 365.

The single number has been in use since November alongside the existing numbers. Callers are charged the local rate only whether they are in the force area or elsewhere in the UK.

"While 999 remains the option for people facing a crisis, the new number is for calls of a more routine nature,'' said Chief Inspector Darren Ellis of the force's communications department.

He added: "Although the new number was introduced in November only about4,500 of the 18,000 calls we receive per week come via that route.

"Time has now run out for the old numbers and people need to be aware that whichever part of the force area they are in the number they need is 0845 6060 365.''

Two communication centres, one at Bishop Auckland and the other on the headquarters site at Aykley Heads went operational six months ago following the introduction of a £3.26 million digital radio network designed to speed up response times.