Labour has scrapped its plans for a non-emergency phone number for reporting antisocial behaviour, vandalism and graffiti despite promising the service in its manifesto at the last general election.

Officials in five areas where the 101 number has been on trial have been told that funding will cease at the end of March.

Labour’s manifesto in 2005 stated: “Not all problems need a 999 response, so a single phone number staffed by police, local councils and other local services will be available across the country.”

The idea is on trial in South Wales, Hampshire, Northumbria, Sheffield and Leicester and it was planned to extend the service by 2008.

The first hint that the Government would not be able to fulfil its promise came this year when Tony McNulty, the Police Minister, said that he could not say whether funds would be available for the trials to continue.

This week the Home Office told the five areas testing the service, which charges 10p a call, that ministers had decided not to continue to fund them and that local areas would have to provide their own funding.

Peter Vaughan, Deputy Chief Constable of South Wales, said that achieving his goals for the service would “be even more difficult now that the Home Office has given us a limited amount of time to source and secure alternative funding”.

The 101 single nonemergency number is intended to cut the number of unnecessary 999 calls. But early results showed that most calls had to be diverted back to police because they concerned serious matters of law and order.

Among questions asked of staff in Hampshire were: “Can someone test my smoke alarm?” and “When does the next bus leave for Southampton?”

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