I expect this may be something of a specialist request.  Lancashire Police run a Voicebank service for press enquiries.  It's basically for local and national press to check what's been going on on the patch.  
The press office is based in Preston - Lancashire Constabulary Headquarters, PO Box 77,  Hutton, Preston,
Lancashire, PR4 5SB.  The number is 0871 550 8022.

I've tried Google, searched the forums and existing database to no avail.  Any help would be gratefully received!  Thanks!

If the Voicebank is a automated service linked to the main switchboard it may not be possible to obtain a geographic number.

However, two suggestions:

a) the number of the Police HQ in Hutton, Preston,  is 0845 1 25 35 45. This is cheaper to call than the 0871 number and they may be able/willing to transfer the call

b) Divisional HQ are in Lawson St, Preston, and their number is 01772 203 203. See if they can transfer the call.

Please report back how you got on.

lompos wrote on Mar 31^st, 2009 at 11:08am:

If the Voicebank is a automated service linked to the main switchboard it may not be possible to obtain a geographic number. However, two suggestions: a) the number of the Police HQ in Hutton, Preston,  is 0845 1 25 35 45. This is cheaper to call than the 0871 number and they may be able/willing to transfer the call b) Divisional HQ are in Lawson St, Preston, and their number is 01772 203 203. See if they can transfer the call. Please report back how you got on.

The geo number for HQ in Preston is; - 01772 614444, and has been for as long as I can remember, (it is in the database), didn't even know they had an 0845 for it!
It is in this years BT phone book, 2008-2009,delivered a couple of weeks ago.

Newshound wrote on Mar 31^st, 2009 at 10:40am:

I expect this may be something of a specialist request.  Lancashire Police run a Voicebank service for press enquiries.  It's basically for local and national press to check what's been going on on the patch.   The press office is based in Preston - Lancashire Constabulary Headquarters, PO Box 77,  Hutton, Preston, Lancashire, PR4 5SB.  The number is 0871 550 8022.

This an automated service and is detailed on Lancashire Constabulary's Press Office Contacts page.

The 0871 550 prefix is allocated to 4D Interactive Ltd. It looks like Lancashire Constabulary (LC) uses 4D to provide this helpline. I think that it is likely that 4D hosts all the recordings itself, so the underlying number is not likely to be on one of LC's 01772 numbers. The best alternative is the main press office number, 01772 412333, which I have listed in the database.


So what could the alternative be? I think it's going to be a 4D Interactive number. Nationally, it only has three allocations and they are in London:

020 1111 (04/1999)
020 3041 (01/2007)
020 7966 (05/1999)

The 020 1111 is the most likely one as it is a "national dialling only" prefix. That is, the "local" part of the number starts with 0 or 1 and so it can only be dialled with the 020 code as local numbers cannot begin with these digits. They are provided when they wouldn't be dialled directly, typically for direction to by 08/09 numbers.

Thanks for all your input so far.  We call this number at least once an hour - so if we were to use an alternative it would need to be a DDI.  I'm sure the switchboard would soon get wise to us calling them every hour to be transferred!