Only two out of ten 999 phone calls for the police were for immediate emergencies last year.

New data from Kent Police has revealed only 21% phone calls made to 999 from April 2017 to March 28, 2018 were due to a life being at risk or a crime being committed.

On top of that only 55% of the emergency calls were then considered incidents.

Kent Police crime commissioner Matthew Scott is now urging people to report less urgent crime through 101 and the force's website.

At the Kent and Medway crime panel councillors raised concerns about the amount of "abandoned" calls, querying whether people give up after waiting too long.

Cllr Malcolm Dearden (Cons), from Folkestone and Hythe district council, said: "The discrepancy between 999 and 101 is a subjective decision on the caller as to whether they regard their phone call as an emergency.

"However 101 calls can be just as big of an emergency as 999 calls.

"What also concerns me is the amount of abandoned 999 calls of 42,000, which is about 12.5%.

"If someone regards their phone call as an emergency and yet they then abandon it, to that extent that's surely a problem.

"Either it's the response time or it's because people are not using the service properly."

Leader of the labour group at Gravesham Borough Council, Cllr John Burden said people are being put off calling emergency services as they worry they won't be taken seriously.

Kent PCC Matthew Scott (Cons) said: "There needs to be a distinction between those who may well have given up waiting but also an acknowledgement of pocket dials.

"We need to understand the other calls we get that aren't emergencies and why people are using 999.

"Yes there will be people who use it inappropriately, sometimes people will be using it instead of 101.

"As part of the work to improve the service in the force control room, the review will look at everything with regards to calls to 999 and 101.

"The fail-safe in the system is, if Kent Police cannot answer your 999 call within a certain time, another force will answer it for you.

"Abandoned 999 calls is an issue but there is a fail-safe within the system that makes sure that if people stick with the 999 call, they will be able to get a response from a police force much quicker than they would do than the average 101 waiting time."

However he said the waiting time for 101 calls is still an issue and he is looking to hold the chief constable to account to ensure this improves.