Confusion about the clocks changing, a dead goldfish and where to buy cigarettes late at night have all been recent subjects of 999 calls to West Yorkshire's emergency services.

Now police, fire and ambulance chiefs are urging people to only use the 999 service for genuine emergencies.

West Yorkshire police has a non-emergency number - 0845 6060606 - which it is reminding people to use.

Chief Inspector Andy Booth, of West Yorkshire Police's Communications Division, said non-urgent 999 calls could cause vital delays to the police response to a genuine emergency.

Chief Insp Booth said: "We would like to reiterate that people should only dial 999 in a genuine emergency, where there is a danger of life or where a crime is in progress."

On a busy day the main communications division call centre can take up to 3,000 calls, with about 70 per cent for non-emergencies.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service estimates one in four calls made to its communication centre in Wakefield is unnecessary.

It is asking people to contact NHS Direct on 0845 1203200, their GP or pharmacy in non-urgent cases.

Operations director John Darley said: "Inappropriate calls are a real problem because they divert emergency resources away from patients with potentially life-threatening, time-critical conditions.

"However I am anxious to point out that the service does not want to stop people calling for an ambulance in a genuine emergency.

"We don't want to deter people from calling 999 if it is a genuine emergency but we need to let people know that there are a range of other services, like NHS Direct, their GP or pharmacy, which could be more appropriate for their needs."

West Yorkshire Fire Service said its main problem was with hoax calls.

On average its control room at Birkenshaw, Bradford, receives 3,000 hoax calls a year from a total of approximately 200,000.

Fire service spokesman Stephen Hardy said: "The real plague as far as the fire service is concerned is hoax calls, which waste valuable resources which could be dealing with, or preparing for, genuine emergencies."

e-mail: ali.davies@bradford.newsquest.co.uk