Theft of 342 drain covers has cost town council £110k

HUNDREDS of cast iron drain covers have been stolen in a West Midlands market town, costing the local authority more than £100,000 on replacements.

In what has been dubbed “the great drain robbery” Walsall council said 342 covers were stolen, 28 of them on July 20 alone. It has spent £110,800 this year replacing the covers which feed rainwater into the public sewer system.

Mike Bird, leader of the Conservative council, has urged people who see thefts in progress to report them to the police, adding the money spent on replacing the covers would be better used on “our looked-after children and caring for our most vulnerable residents, rather than fixing things after criminals have left our highways in a dangerous condition”.

“The monetary issue of course is important but the threat to life is even worse,” he said.

“You can just imagine somebody on a bicycle ... or even a young child, walking in the road and all of a sudden they disappear down the drain.”

He said each time a gully cover is taken, the authority is working to install the replacements in a way “that it will make it very much more difficult for these criminals to get their hands on their ill-gotten gains”.

Mr Bird said “we will also come down heavily” on scrap dealers caught buying the covers, explaining the 37,825 gully covers across the borough were of varying ages, designs and sizes.

“This means there isn’t a stockpile of covers in the yard which can be quickly fitted, so our contractor, Tarmac, has to ‘plate’ the missing covers while replacements are organised to ensure the safety of highway users,” he said.

“I can understand people may think it’s just a 10-minute job, but it isn’t and certainly not if we want to future-proof. When we walk, drive or cycle we only see the surface, but there’s a lot of engineering underground.”