EXTRA police officers patrolled the streets of Droitwich as crowds of New Year's Eve revellers descended upon the town's pubs and venues.

Staff from West Mercia Police's Operation Christmas Presence, which has be in action across the festive period, were deployed to the town, along with extra officers from the Droitwich Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT).

Speaking on New Year's Eve, Sergeant Sarah Kent, of Droitwich's SNT, said: "It usually is fairly busy, although in Droitwich most people are generally well behaved and everyone aims to go out and have a good night and not cause any trouble.

"There will be extra officers out to ensure everyone has a good night. Op Christmas Presence will be mostly in the night time economy - the pubs in Droitwich, but response officers will be responding to incidents as well.

"Generally people in Droitwich are well behaved and we would encourage them to behave that way. People have generally been really good and everybody seems to have had a good, quiet time."

However for officers elsewhere across the force, New Year's Eve is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year.

Ahead of festive celebrations, West Mercia Police urged residents to think twice about whether an incident was a real emergency before calling 999.

A spokesperson for the police force, said: "Do not call 999 for calls which are not an emergency. It will tie up an operator and delay a police response to someone who may actually require the police, but is unable to get through."

Between 7pm on Wednesday, December 31, 2014 to 7am on Thursday, January 1, 2015, the force received 433 emergency 999 calls, which was a 230 per cent increase to the average number of calls per night.

At the peak of the night - 1am to 2am - a 999 call was received once every 26 seconds.

However, members of the public is always encouraged to use 999 in a genuine emergency and to never put themselves at risk.

For non-emergency police matters, use the 101 number, or report them via the 101 Live Chat.