Greenwich borough has been ranked one of the worst in London for police responding to 'significant' 999 calls.

The Mayor of London has recently published new data revealing that the police are regularly not responding within the hour to emergency calls across London.

999 calls are categorised as Immediate (I), Significant (S) and Extended (E).

They are all given different times in which they MUST respond.

Police SHOULD respond to an (I) call within 15 minutes - this means that there is a danger to life or an immediate threat.

Police SHOULD respond to an (S) call within 60 minutes - this means that there is genuine concern for somebody’s safety, a potential hate crime, an incident involving a road collision or an incident where a witness or likely evidence is likely to be lost.

And Police should to respond to an (E) call within 24 hours or receiving the call.

However, the borough of Greenwich is ranked as one of the worst across London.

Over the last six months, it has taken police, on average, 12 minutes and 55 seconds to respond to an (I) call in the borough.

This means Greenwich ranks the lowest in London when it comes to this particular callout.

Police should respond to (S) calls within 60 minutes, however according to the Mayor's figures it is taking an average of 1hr 20 minutes to get to the scene of such reported crimes in Greenwich.

The Mayor was forced to publish these results following questioning by the Liberal Democrat Londonwide Assembly Member, Caroline Pidgeon.

Caroline Pidgeon AM said: “Calling the police after a hate crime, or after a road collision and then having to wait so long for the police to arrive is not acceptable. In many cases there is also a real risk that valuable evidence or witnesses are lost if the police fail to respond to incidents within an hour. Long response times create the risk of crimes not being properly investigated.

“Responding to 999 calls in a reasonable time period is vital for public safety. These targets for response times should be met in every part of London.”

Chief Superintendent Simon Dobinson at the Met Police responded: “The operational challenges facing London and the Met are well known - and our primary focus is on responding to Emergency ("I" grade) calls within 15 minutes. These calls are those in which Londoners need urgent help.

"Our latest statistics from February 2019 show the average response time to emergencies is 8 and a half minutes from the time the call is first answered.

"There is ongoing work across the Met to maintain and improve the emergency response service to Londoners. The force is also continually developing ways in which the public can contact police in a non-emergency. All crime, ASB and road traffic incidents can now be reported online. The Met also has a huge presence on social media, which members of the public use to interact with officers and units on a daily basis.”