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Warning on Shropshire drain cover thefts
Wednesday 11th January 2012, 10:59AM GMT.
A fresh wave of drain cover thefts across north Shropshire is continuing to put motorists’ lives at risk, police warned today.
Six drain covers have been stolen in the Market Drayton and Tilstock areas in the latest thefts over the weekend and on Monday.
Councillor Simon Jones, from Shropshire Council, said the covers would cost more than £5,000 to replace.
Recently about 20 covers were taken in north Shropshire, mostly in Hadnall. Six went on the A528.
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Who BUYS drain covers?
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I am guessing if they are metal drain covers then metal has quite a good value if you were to sell it.
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Scrap merchants.
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Any of the numerous dealers who pay cash-no questions asked for cable from railways,copper pipes,tanks and fittings from building sites,cast iron guttering,fencing or metal gates from anywhere,and even bronze plaques from war memorials.
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Why do the police state the obvious,get out there and catch the bastards !!!!
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Warwickshire council pay £225 each looking at another article….. and even that sounds expensive!!!!!!!
Whoever is responsible should be sacked and not replaced, they are overstaffed anyway!
Or maybe the drain cover is £100, a man to look at the hole in the road is another £150. A surveyor to measure it is £150, a manager to sign the order off £150. £200 to install it, and another £150 for someone to look at it and sign it off?
I would love to see how a price like that is justified. Anyone else would buy a drain cover (or remove one from stock)and install it a couple of hours later.
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Oh dear
I don’t think it costs £5000 per drain cover. That will be the total cost of replacing them all. Or are you just upset that you have been shortchanged at the scrap merchants?
It seems that you are far too quick to jump on the council bashing bandwagon and have forgotten to about the public safety aspect of it. Even if they are paying £5000 per cover then that is definately worth it to save a life.
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pete check the maths. He isn’t suggesting that they are paying, £5000 per cover but with his calculations it works out at £900 per cover which is about what the council are quoting. As for the stupid comment “It’s worth £5000 per cover to save a life”, if that’s the case, the council should be putting more effort into stopping these thefts if you believe the whole thing is life threatening.
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You tell me to check my maths and then try to tell me that 5000 divided by 20 is 900? I think you’ll find its 250.
And how do the council exactly stop people from stealing these? They can have people patrolling them on a regular basis. The issue is dodgy scrap merchants buying them for cash and not recording them. If they were clamped down on then members of the public would have nowhere to sell them and problem solved.
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“Six drain covers have been stolen in the Market Drayton and Tilstock areas in the latest thefts over the weekend and on Monday.” “Councillor Simon Jones, from Shropshire Council, said the covers would cost more than £5,000 to replace.”
I’m saying nothing……
The trading standards people up North are visiting scrap yards to clamp down, why can’t Shrops TS do the same if it’s such a life threatening problem and such a regular occurance?
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I may be wrong but if the £5000 to replace them is for all the covers that have so far gone missing as quoted in the article (26 it says) then that works out at about £192 a cover. Which is about right.
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In the case of these draincovers Jet….
if you live in Shropshire
if you pay your taxes
.. you do.
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This seems to be getting a weekly event now.
I wonder what a FOI request would show for the amount spent annually on drain cover replacement, by Shropshire Council? You would have thought that, with the quantity they are buying, that they could get a discount on the £800 plus that they are paying at the moment, I’m sure scrap yards wouldn’t offer you more than £50 each.
I wonder how many times the council are willing to shell out £5000 of our money before they start doing something about it?
Up north the trading standards are visiting scrap yards looking for these and other “suspect” materials, can’t our guys get out and do the same?
Even if they don’t find their own drain covers at least it makes the scrap yards aware that they will be caught for dealing in stolen metals and make them more wary about buying in obviously stolen materials.
Too simple for our lot? Maybe!
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Here’s the solution:
http://www.itv.com/westcountry-east/drain-cover-theft95647/
Composite drain covers are more expensive to fit but they last longer, give consistent grip throughout their life AND no-one is going to steal them for scrap. Another bonus is that several British companies make them.
I understand that Shropshire Council are aware that composite covers are available.
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Recent reports on tv and radio say the goverment is to stop scrap merchants dealing in cash.Imagine driving a car or motorbike late at night and some low life has removed the manhole covers in the middle of the road because most are taken under cover of darkness.
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Small point Shirley, the covers being stolen are drain covers from the side of the road. Still very dangerous though agreed.
A suggestion. Surely it would make sense to have these covers made to be bolted to the drain, say 4 counter sunk socket head bolts to each cover.
Initially more expensive to produce, but, much harder to steal, so not so many to replace.
I can’t imagine the thieves would want to spend the necessary time it would take to unscrew 4 bolts on the side of the road. More chance of being seen and reported.
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Colin D – good idea – finally some light at the end of the sewer.
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