THERE seems a worrying lack of recognition by the Home Office and police about the dangers of alienating the public with the new 101 phone number.

It has been introduced as a standard number across the country and much of the theory behind it is commendable.

But the worry is the introduction of a 15p flat rate charge and a failure, publicly at least, to properly detail or recognise the change in cost for what is a phone number used by thousands of people trying to help the police each month.

The number is for people who are not in an immediately life-threatening situation or reporting a serious crime as it is happening.

You will even be directed to use it should you turn up at the front counter of a police station having suffered an assault, rather than be taken to an officer.

The majority of people who use it are either victims of crime or witnesses, answering the appeals for help to solve crimes and common sense would dictate most of these are calling from their landlines.

After days of asking police for their details on what this means for the public, our own investigation shows the largest company’s customers will be paying double what they usually would.

This is not Thames Valley Police’s fault because the Government is imposing it. But no-one has had the backbone to admit they fully looked at the rise in cost to reassure the public they are not being seen as a cash cow. Lesson 101 in public communication, surely?