A police inspector has admitted the call handling system for Thames Valley is a mess.

Inspector Ian Edwards, of Bicester police, said problems should be resolved when two new control rooms and two police inquiry centres become fully operational next spring.

The control rooms at Abingdon and Milton Keynes will handle all 999 calls. The inquiry centres, in Kidlington and Windsor, will deal with all other police calls. The comment came at a police forum meeting at Heyford Park chapel, Upper Heyford, near Bicester.

People living in 10 villages near Bicester were invited to talk to officers about any problems or concerns.

At the meeting, a number of people said they had had difficulty speaking to a local officer to report a crime and had been put through to control rooms in Slough and Milton Keynes.

One woman said she had called police in Kidlington, but found herself talking to police in Slough.

Insp Edwards told the meeting: "Thames Valley Police is in a mess as far as call handling goes. It comes about because the number of calls we handle has increased beyond belief.

"People are reporting stuff which 10 years ago they would not report."

He said once the control centres were up and running all calls would be dealt with by one of the centres.

People would be able to phone up and information would immediately logged on computer.

He added: "Crimes will be indexed straight away, which can only be a good thing. The beauty of that is officers will know the next morning what has been going on. It is a major move forward and I'm hoping this is going to solve a lot of our problems."