NORTH Yorkshire's new chief constable inherits a number of problems as she settles in at Newby Wiske. Early, sickness-related, retirement and the pension burden are among them, but perhaps the most immediately pressing is the continuing teething problems being experienced with the force's new call handling system.

The description "new" is perhaps misleading. It was introduced well over a year ago, with two purpose-built control rooms being opened in York and at headquarters, replacing the seven previous control rooms. Since then, members of the public have had mixed experiences when trying to contact the force, chief among them being delays and calls being inexplicably "lost".

Although the number of formal complaints is now down to a handful a month, it masks the real number of badly handled incidents. And a senior officer this week admitted that it could be a year before the system works properly.

A key factor is the technology. It doesn't work as it should and the force is in rather short-tempered negotiations with the system supplier - issuing a deadline of December 13 for all the technical issues to be satisfactorily resolved. But there have also been people problems to do with training, staff turnover and stress.

This comes at a time when the force has been under fire, notably in Thirsk, for being difficult to contact. Police stations are unmanned for long periods, which means the telephone call handling has to work perfectly to reassure residents of the county that they can get hold of a police officer when they need one.

The new chief should put this particular problem at the top of her in-tray.