THE brother of the young woman who died after lying undiscovered in a crashed car for three days has said Chief Constable Sir Stephen House should be sacked.

Responding to reports that the chief constable of Police Scotland was refusing to stand down, Martin Bell wrote on the social networking site Facebook: “Good sack him ... Resigning on pay isn’t good enough.”

As the community rallied round the families of Lamara Bell, 25, and her boyfriend John Yuill, 28, who lay dead beside her in the crashed Renault Clio after coming off the M9 near Stirling, further evidence of the strain the police service is under was emerging last night.

An email from a whistleblower obtained by The National claimed staff in one police station were facing a backlog of 10,000 outstanding inquiries that had been phoned in via the force’s non-emergency 101 line.

After the M9 case emerged, House apologised for “this individual failure in our service”, however the email from the whistleblower suggested staff were battling critical problems triggered by a programme of control room closures and mergers.

“I met some staff from a division and they, like my own, are battle weary with the ongoing changes, in particular with the recent changes at Bilston Glen control room,” said the officer in the email.

“The public were advised by Police Scotland and Stephen House that no crisis exists and all is being done to rectify the smooth transition merging the control rooms.

“It is clear that this merging is simply not working. Staff informed me that they are experiencing a 10,000 backlog of call cards to be reviewed or updated. Call cards are raised when members of the public report incidents to the police. Upon police attendance or advice on the phone the call card should be updated and resulted. It is clear from the backlog that this is not being done. In the main this is down to a crisis in staffing within the control room at Bilston.”

It is understood the initial call to the police about the accident was handled by the under-pressure Bilston Glen control room in Midlothian, which started taking additional calls from Glenrothes and Stirling when these control rooms closed.

Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, who has been calling for a wide-ranging investigation into the operation of the force amid previous issues including the arming of some officers on routine patrol, said: “The stresses and strain on Police Scotland are clear. This massive backlog of call cards is evidence of those strains on control rooms and the local police stations. I have been told this backlog is in part because of the inefficiency of the control rooms. This is why we need a wider inquiry into the operation of Police Scotland.”

The couple in the crash were finally discovered by officers last Wednesday when the incident was reported for a second time. Lamara, a mother-of-two, was rescued and taken to hospital but died on Sunday morning. It later emerged the initial call had not been logged into the police system or actioned to operational teams.

On Sunday, Justice Secretary Michael Matheson ordered a review of police call-handling systems to be carried out by the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary. An investigation into the circumstances of the incident and how it was dealt with by the police is also being carried out by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner under the direction of the Crown Office.

Rennie has urged Police Scotland not to go ahead with further control room closures until the call-handling review and PIRC investigation have been completed.

But last night a spokesman for Police Scotland said it would continue to press ahead with the changes.

He said: “We remain committed to the programme and are in discussions with the Scottish Police Authority.”

With reference to the 10,000 backlog of call cards, he added that the force did not recognise that figure, but would not say what the backlog was or whether there was one. Assistant Chief Constable Val Thomson, Contact Command and Control division, said: “As part of our programme to improve efficiency and enhance the service to the public, we are reviewing the structure of our control rooms across the country. The standards of performance are closely monitored to ensure that any issues are addressed.

“Members of the public will dial 999 for many reasons, not all requiring priority attention. Some may be malicious, others due to the caller dialling 999 for a non-emergency matter or in fact a matter for other agencies. If it is not an emergency then officers may be deployed at the caller’s convenience at a later date to deal with the matter.

“We do not recognise the figure provided relating to call cards outstanding. If anyone has concerns about the service provided or any specific issues there are a number of ways of reporting that for further investigation, including confidential reporting for those within Police Scotland.”

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson has backed Chief Constable Sir Stephen House following the incident. Asked whether he still had full confidence in Police Scotland Chief Constable Sir Stephen House, he told BBC Radio Scotland: “Yes, he still has my confidence.”

Matheson added: “He has acknowledged that there have been mistakes made over the last couple of years including a mistake made in very recent times with this particular case, and he sought to try and address them."