A NEW £1.8 million call centre for Gwent Police could mean more bobbies on the beat.

The new call centre, which will merge with the force control room, aims to improve the time taken to respond to the million-plus calls the force receives each year.

The scheme will also include having police officers based in the call centre so they can deal with the public's queries without sending an officer to the scene.

Each call will be prioritised and officers will be directed to attend an incident should it be necessary.

Chief Inspector John Burley said: "We used to lose 15 per cent of calls before anybody picked them up, and another 15 per cent when they were transferred within the organisation.

"Before this system 11-13 per cent of telephone calls were resolved, and we hope to increase this to 30 per cent.

"We are not looking to stop police officers attending incidents, but to stop them attending calls they shouldn't be going to in the first place."

The technology, which includes touch screens, will be so high that the force has been chosen to help test-run a single non-emergency number for the police.

The new call-centre staff, who mainly have a background in policing or customer services, have to undergo a ten-week training course.

They are then placed out at a station for three months to gain geographical knowledge of the force and an understanding of how it operates.

The force receives more than one million non-emergency calls every year, and 80,000 emergency calls. Response times to these are currently above the national average.

The project is being funded mainly by the Gwent Police Authority, who have financed the personnel and IT programme.

The new call centre is slowly being phased in, but should be fully up and running by April.

* Pictured: Chief Inspector John Burley in the new control room