A PHONE dialling code is proving problematic for residents to prove where they are living when it comes to ringing the emergency services.

Residents in the lower end of Glazebury have a Wigan phone code and not Warrington and are often put through to the wrong county when they dial the emergency services.

Instead of being put through to Cheshire control rooms for fire, police and ambulance, they are often put through to Greater Manchester instead, as their phone code is Wigan.

When residents call the emergency services, in most cases they are put through to BT who say they put callers through to the relevant control rooms based on what was decided between the emergency services and the Home Office.

Culcheth and Glazebury parish councillor, Delia Caswell, says that there has long been a problem but it appeared to be resolved until an incident at Bents garden centre last month, where it is claimed there was a four-hour wait for the police to arrive.

She said: "Mostly the police get it right in a few minutes but I know there have been incidents when it has taken far longer for it to be decided who covers this area."

A spokesman for Bents said: "The problem over the phone code has still not been resolved. It seems that for the police, the message is not being passed across from the Greater Manchester force to Cheshire.

"In August, we had an incident with a suspected drink driver, the ambulance took about two hours to get here, and the police took about four hours."

A spokesman for Cheshire Police said: "We have no record of an incident at Bents garden centre, so no evidence of any problem. But if people have got concerns we would ask them to get in touch with us."

Warrington police can be contacted on 652222.