30 Shropshire drain covers stolen in just a week
Saturday 24th December 2011, 10:59AM GMT.
Thieves have stolen about 30 drain covers from across Shropshire in just one week putting the lives of motorists at risk, council officials warned today.
Council bosses described the thefts as ‘irresponsible opportunism’ and warned the covers would cost more than £5,000 to replace.
They said uncovered drains led to increased dangers on the roads.
Shropshire Council said about 20 of the covers were taken from north Shropshire, most in Hadnall.
A further six were removed on the A528 between Shrewsbury and Harmer Hill. The council said the thefts were taken very seriously and each one was reported to police, while hinged covers were being used to replace the missing ones making them harder to remove in future.
Councillor Simon Jones, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member with responsibility for transport, said: “Not only expensive to replace, missing covers also present a real danger to road users. Uncovered drains could easily lead to a fatality of a cyclist or motorcyclist and cause serious damage to cars and lorries.
“It costs us a minimum of £180 to replace each cover and, as most are emergency replacements, they normally cost us more than that. This irresponsible opportunism is costing us all money and putting lives at risk – it’s simply not acceptable.”
Report information about the thefts to the council by calling 0345 6789006.
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Surely its time the for the Police to get out of their offices and cars and started doing the job we pay them handsomely for.The other day I was in a town centre ( not in Shropshire ) and a gang of 1/2 a dozen kids were shouting, screaming and running amok, suddenly one shouted police and they then split into smaller groups and behaved, they had heard the cars engine approaching, giving them plenty of warning they may just of well used blues and two’s as a warning of their approach.as kids these days easily recognise the car by its engine sound.
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So, jeffb, Police are paid “Handsomely” eh? Top line for a bobby after 10 years service is around £36k a YEAR compared to a top footballer that gets paid around £100,000 a WEEK! And what job do you do where you risk your life and have to deal with anything and everything? Reality check please.
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No, that’s not much for a job which requires so many diverse skills and involves exposure to danger.
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PS I will never forget how kind the police were when I had to make a very lengthy statement for a coroner (Shrewsbury and Canterbury stations).
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Jeffb
You obviously have no accurate concept as to the role of the police suggesting that they get out of their offices. If you had first hand knowledge you may be able to comment more accurately.
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it is time the scrap metal merchants were done for recieving !!! some one has to buy the stuff to make it worth stealing !
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Why are the scrapyards not being held to account?
There is no mistaking drain covers when they are being “weighed in.”
If there were a few more checks & prosecutions of the owners of scrapyards then there would be less thefts.
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After all the publicity, why are scrap merchants still paying cash to anyone arriving with railway lines, drain and manhole covers, hospital emergency equipment to which they clearly have no right of ownership?
No proof of origin, no identity requirement, no traceable VAT or company identity.
Why are our MP’s taking so long to make payment to a legitimate Company Bank Account compulsory?
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Why do scrapyards still accept things like this, The sooner the authorities tighten up on all scrapyards the better, why don’t the council get round all the known yards and see if they have been offered these items.
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So who is buying these things?
Not easy to melt down so i guess the will be sold as they are.
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It seems it is so much easier, for local authorities and the police just to shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh well better buy some more!”, than actually get out from behind a desk and go looking for these things…after all it’s only public money being wasted/stolen.
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Oh dear, you really can’t help yourself can you roadrunner?
In your desperation to turn everything into an anti public sector tirade, you now seem to hold the authorities responsible for thefts of drain covers. It would actually be quite laughable if it were not so sad.
The only people responsible for these thefts are the lowlifes themselves, and the actual scrap dealers who accept such items.
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Oh come on Mark – don’t spoil his fun – that comment was probably his Christmas present to himself!
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Oh Mark get real and stop being a cry baby.
Where on earth do you get the idea that I am blaming LAs for the THEFT of drain covers?
What i am saying is , it’s all too easy just to go out and buy some more when it’s other peoples’ money, instead of patrolling the obvious places where these things are going to turn up.
If you have a £1k mountain bike stolen and you had a short list of probable places to find it, would you a) look in these places for it or b) just go and buy another…or just cry to mummy for another one?
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It’s all so simple through your eyes, isn’t it roadrunner?
The priority is public safety which means replacing the drain covers.
Which do you think is the quickest way of doing this? Buying more or working off a ‘shortlist’ and trying to track them down?
Given that scrap yards will almost certainly be aware that they should not be in possession of these items, one can only assume they will be well hidden or – more likely – already melted down and unidentifiable.
Then of course there’s the allocation of finite resources – trying to trace the covers involves ‘spending other people’s money’ too.
To borrow your puerile idiom, it would seem to me that it is you who is persistently ‘crying to mummy’, about the nasty local authorities and public sector spending the precious tax that muummy’s bwave little soldier has worked so werry werry hard for and now they’re spending it on other people. Waaahhhh, waaaaahhhh…..
Have you contacted the police about your ‘shortlist of probable places’, I’m sure they’d be very interested if you have any pertinent information.
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Oh grow up too, Arthur, you talk as though councls re “one man bands” which are only capable of performing one task at a time.
WI’ve an idea that you would probably like.
Why don’t the councils offer to buy them back off the thieves or scrappies for far less than the going rate for new ones? That way every one will be happy…the public aren’t paying over the odds for new ones, the scrappies/thieves are making a profit and more importantly, the council bods don’t have to do any hard/dangerous work in tracing them and confronting nasty scrap yard owner with nasty dogs…oh for an easy life eh?
Keeps the economy ticking over too and less council redundancies.
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Roadrunner, have you ever noticed how you begin so many posts telling people to ‘grow up’, ‘stop being a cry baby’, ‘stop crying to mummy’, to ‘get real’, to ‘live in the real world’?
All insults that have no real meaning, but serve to disparage people who don’t share your point of view.
Do you think this ‘tactic’ dicredits your debating opponent or yourself in most people’s eyes?
Do you really think the council should buy back stolen goods?
Oh, and that shortlist again?
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Really Arthur, do you want me to do your job for you, what training/ education did you undertake?…and yes that is a serious question.
Try looking in yellow pages under scrapyards…not many to visit…on your bike now.
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By the way Arthur, the police and trading standards guys up North are visiting scrapyards, now so if you get stuck you could always pick up the phone and ask those canny Northerners how it’s done.
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“Roadrunner, have you ever noticed how you begin so many posts telling people to ‘grow up’, ‘stop being a cry baby’, ‘stop crying to mummy’, to ‘get real’, to ‘live in the real world’?”
To be honest, Arthur, I have a wide circle of friends, mainly self employed people running their own businesses and with engineering backgrounds…and a few who work in the public sector too.
One thing that always gets talked about down the pub and at social gatherings 9even amongst the PS workers), is how poorly managed /incompetent the local councils are when it comes to doing anything constructive and thinking outside the box. If it isn’t drawn up in black and white, the usual attitude is…”we could possible do that.”
Perhaps if you wee to talk to engineers/business people you would understand the frustrations of hearing such futile excuses, when the people running this country from the ground level have to make decisions/think on their feet all the time, which would absolute petrify the average office bound public sector worker with their “let’s work to the rule book or go on strike”, type of attitude…which is why we all use the “get in the real world” expression when referring to public sector attitudes and thinking…sorry if that offends but that’ what the man on the street is thinking.
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The thieves will be hard to catch but, I suspect, the handlers and receivers not.
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the punishment should fit the crime gross and reckless vandalism which endangers public safety should be a 15-20 year stretch in the clink, it should be considered attempted murder as it could well kill someone
also the scrap metal merchants are clearly culplable in this fellon, there is a scrap yard probably in shropshire certainly in the uk who have accepted these items for recycling and they too should be punished for receiving stolen goods
this crime must be stamped out now
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Hi J
It wouldn;t be atempted murder as the defendant has to intend to kill. But criminal damage where the the defendant is knowing endagers life carries a maximum sentence of life. If, heaven forbid, anyone is killed, manslaughter carries a maximum of life.
This is unimaginably spupid. It reminds me of a story of people stealing sat navs from ambulances. Let’s hope the paramedics could find their fammily members when they had heart attacks.
Grrr!
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the council harps on about helping local businesses well the inventor of smart water is from shropshire, so lets have that used on all grates, then they have their own trading standards and recycling people, get them on the case to find the scrap metal merchants, audit them all and mystery shop them by trying to sell them loads of scrap metal with stolen stuff planted in it etc, im sure it should be easy to
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Or they could sit back, get out Joe Public’s cheque book and write a big fat cheque…much easier than going out in the cold and getting their hands dirty.
What’s five grand in week to lose? Peanuts!
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It’s good to see some of the Northern Councils are actually getting their trading Standards officers and police to check scrap yards…well done…all we need now is to get some of our local guys out of their offices to do some real work.
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Well I reckon it was the russian guy
Who dya nick ya drainy ov
They were under cover apparently so it was hard to see them
They wont get far anyway because information is bound to get leaked with that many drain covers going missing
Council Tax! – More drain cover replacements = less money for the top bosses per anum
And the last one – I seen the people who did this! They were driving around in a big white Van with a sign saying – “Call the police – by the time they answer the call the scrap metal merchant would have melted them and I would have burnt this van out”
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Well the punishment for this should be so severe that anyone caught thieving or recieving, will think again,
its also about time that they were made with a special lock in them…
as for the police being paid 36k a year i would like some of that please…and there pension at 55,
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Feel free to apply to join then…
I am constantly amused & annoyed in equal measure at people who gripe about what others earn. It is within the power of most people to obtain the qualifications and experience to obtain what they seem to perceive as jobs where there’s ‘easy money’ available. Perhaps in some instances the rewards are disproportionate to the skills and aptitude required, but once again no-one’s stopping you in finding out where these types of jobs are & joining the supposed gravy train.
If you’ve got a job you dislike & are poorly paid for it then that’s likely down to choices you’ve made at various junctures in your life. Don’t blame others who made better choices than you…
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If the council does not act swiftly and people are injured negligence claims will certainly increase our council tax bills.
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