New digital technology installed at Selby telephone exchange will make it easier to catch malicious and hoax callers.

The £1 million investment by BT at Portholme Road enables engineers to trace calls instantaneously, said customer services manager Brian Greenwood.

"Thanks to determined BT people, excellent police links and new technology, malicious callers are learning there's no hiding place. We will catch them, it's as simple as that," he said.

"A similar warning goes out to those irresponsible pranksters who make hoax calls to the emergency services."

The state-of-the-art System X system will also give 12,000 customers clearer phone lines and a wider range of services such as last-number recall.

Selby mayor Coun Winnie May, who unveiled a plaque to mark the upgrade, said: "The conversion will ensure that the people of Selby all have access to the latest facilities.

"I feel the digital call-back system will come in useful. I hate missing the telephone by a few seconds, if I am in the bath, and not knowing who it was."

Selby and Leigh-on-Sea telephone exchange at Essex were the last in the United Kingdom to go digital, as part of a £27 billion investment in the BT communications network.

Mr Greenwood added: "Every programme has to have someone first and last. BT has spent £27 billion over a long time. We put Selby at the forefront of previous improvements in 1980."

Engineer Ray Boggis, who began the switch-over to System X at Suffolk in the early 1980s, attended yesterday's ceremony.

In 1980, Selby became one of the first Yorkshire exchanges to be converted from the old electro-mechanical system to an electronic system.

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