LANCASHIRE police has one of the lowest public satisfaction rates when it comes to dealing with 999 calls, a survey reveals.

But the constabulary has hit back at the Audit Commission report and blames teething problems with its new central communications centre for the poor score.

Lancashire has the fourth lowest percentage of public satisfaction out of every shire force in the country with 25 per cent of people unhappy with their response to emergency calls.

Lancashire has the fifth lowest rate of all forces in the country, including the metropolitan forces such as Greater Manchester, Merseyside and the Met in London.

The national average level of satisfaction was 82 per cent -- seven per cent higher than Lancashire.

Lancashire aims to answer 999 calls within ten seconds and achieved an average of 92 per cent. The figure was above the average and an improvement on the 87 per cent of five years ago, despite a doubling in the number of emergency calls.

The force also scores badly on public satisfaction with initial response to violent crime, with 69 per cent saying they are happy, the fifth lowest in the country. All 37 forces in the country were included in the survey.

Figures reveal widespread public dissatisfaction with the number of officers on foot patrol, with an average of just 20 per cent saying they were happy, although the individual percentage for Lancashire was not available.

Other figures showed 80 per cent were happy with service at police inquiry desks and initial response to burglary calls and 89 per cent happy with service at road accidents. Dr Ruth Henig, chairman of the Lancashire Police Authority, said part of the problem was the force's switch to a new central communication system. She added that though public fear of crime had increased, police performance in dealing with crimes had improved. "The change to a central communications system has had considerable teething problems and we are putting pressure on the police to try to sort that out," said Dr Henig.

"In general terms, what is of interest is that performance in reducing crime has gone up, but so have public levels of fear of crime."

Responding to the low satsfaction rate for response to violent crime Dr Henig said: "It is difficult to comment without knowing last year's figure.

"We do look at these figures and try to seek to address any problems and take any action we can to improve them."

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Finnigan commented: "We are pleased with our achievements in handling 999 calls and that we are still able to maintain better than average availability of officers on the streets of Lancashire."