Contacting Dorset Police remains difficult, according to councillors across the county.

Some are claiming that the situation has become worse since the police withdrew the ability to send an email.

Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) councillors on the Dorset Police and Crime Panel say that many of their residents preferred to use email rather than face potentially long wait times for a telephone conversation.

Boscombe West councillor Patrick Canavan told the meeting that there was "room for improvement" with communications between the police and the community, and claimed that until that was done satisfaction figures with the police would not improve.

Cllr Tony Trent said average answer times on the non-emergency 101 line, at 17 minutes, seemed not to have improved for years.

"I'm wondering whether the resources are right for the 101?" he asked.

"I had advised residents to use the email system then at least there is something there," he said.

Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) David Sidwick said that more resources had been put into the 101 system and a new system for the public to report items (Single Online Home) was now in place and was more efficient than using email, 50 per cent of which he said caused more work by not including all the information needed – forcing 101 staff to email back and forth to get the details they needed.

"Single Online Home will change that," he said.

"I'm not comfortable with 17 minutes, it was 45 minutes when I was a candidate [for the PCC position], at least its got better, but I want to move faster if I can."

Cllr Alasdair Keddie said that withdrawing the email was "a step backwards" for the police, adding: "Lots of my residents use the email, precisely to avoid the 17-minute delays… it does feel like routes to public communications are contracting with the removal of something so useful and respected by the community."

Mr Sidwick said he had told the police that he believed they had withdrawn the email system too quickly without communication and there should have been publicity with a timeframe saying when it would end.

"I echo the frustration about the way that it was done but it is right that it was done and I can only hope that residents, once they start using Single Online Home, will feel the benefit because they will get a faster service overall from Dorset Police, because they will be going to the right place," said Mr Sidwick.

He claimed that in other forces, introducing Single Online Home freed up the telephones for those unable to go online.

Cllr Keddie said most residents were simply unaware of the new system with Cllr Trent saying he only discovered the email had been withdrawn at the panel meeting.