High demand after Storm Babet hits county

We’re glad to see a return to normal autumnal weather after the deluge of heavy rains that swept the county over the last few days, and we also want to thank our communities for their patience.

Beginning on Friday and going into the weekend, Storm Babet meant a few days of high demand for all emergency services and local authorities.

The storm increased river levels with some banks bursting across the county. This led to more calls to our force control room, and more jobs for officers to be deployed to in various locations, including Lincoln and Wainfleet.

On Friday 20^th October, we received 712 emergency 999 calls compared to our average of around 400 at this time of year, as well as extra demand via 101.

Superintendent Nicola Templeman, head of our Force Control Room, said: “The storm led to emergency services declaring a major incident. This led to much demand on all services that assisted with the floods. I would like to thank everyone who was involved in this for their efforts.

“This huge demand meant that those making non-urgent calls to 101 would have had a delay and we thank the public for their understanding.”

Superintendent Templeman praised the work of all those working in the control room, which comes at the same time as International Control Room Week. The week runs between 23 to 29 October this year and gives us the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the voices of Lincolnshire Police – our call takers and the rest of the control room team.

The FCR, based at Police Headquarters in Nettleham, is the beating heart of the force. The control room, with its team of call takers, is the first point of contact for victims of crime, answering non-emergency 101 and emergency 999 calls.

Our call takers, along with the controllers and supervisors within the FCR operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and are dedicated to providing the very best service to the public of Lincolnshire. 

To find out more about our Force Control Room, follow this link Celebrating the voices of Lincolnshire Police | Lincolnshire Police (lincs.police.uk)