A NEW police communications system means callers ringing officers in Darlington will speak to staff in Bishop Auckland.

From today, telephone calls to Darlington police station, on (01325) 467681, will be handled by staff at the force's new south communications centre in Bishop Auckland.

Calls will then be transferred to the relevant departments in Darlington.

Durham Constabulary last night stressed that call handlers would still have Darlington knowledge.

Inspector Kevin Blakey, who has been involved in planning the new system, said "It should be a seamless change. People should still ring the current number for Darlington police and if they need to speak to a member of staff in the town, they will still be able to."

Next month similar changes will affect callers to the Sedgefield police division and the Wear and Tees area.

The police switchboard numbers for these areas will not be affected, but calls will be handled by the south communications centre.

The new arrangements follow the introduction of Airwave, a digital radio network being adopted across the UK.

Airwave, which provides radio coverage across 98 per cent of the force area, went into service in Durham and Chester-le-Street last year and will be extended to the rest of County Durham and Darlington by the end of next month.