By Steven Bell

THE FIRE and rescue service in Tayside received more than 400 expensive and potentially life-threatening hoax calls last year.

Figures for 2005/06 suggested that the number of malicious alerts to the brigade is beginning to creep up again after a decade of decline.

A senior officer said there was a need to “monitor” the trend as they continue efforts to educate people about the dangers of hoaxes.

They believe one such scheme—sending text message warnings to people making malicious calls on mobile phones—is having an impact.

Of the 410 hoaxes received in the year to March 31, around 70 of them were from mobiles, compared with 160 from payphones and 180 from private lines.

Although the service was able to establish early on that some of the calls were false, almost 300 of them required a turnout costing an average of £500 a time.

“I wouldn’t say that the figures give us cause for concern, but it is something we need to continually monitor and make sure we take the necessary action,” said Assistant Divisional Officer Dave Stapley.

“We have been involved in various initiatives with young people to teach them the importance of not making malicious calls.

“Another thing that has been quite high-profile is that we have got vehicles with the Use It, Don’t Abuse It message on them, telling people not to make hoax calls.

“We have also set up a service where, if we receive a false call from a mobile phone, we are able to send a text message to it.”

The message warns the user that making false calls to the emergency services is illegal. Repeated abuse could be reported to the mobile service provider and the number disconnected.

A continuing review of malicious call-outs is part of the brigade’s Towards A Safer Tayside plan, which notes “some success” with a drop of 40% over the last 10 years.

Recently published Government figures showed that they had managed to bring down the number of false alerts to 333 in 2004.

“It something that is under review and it is important that, where we identify a problem, we do something about it,” Mr Stapley said. “The main issue is the fact that, if fire appliances are attending a hoax call, they are not available to go to a genuine call. It is a big issue.”