Drain cover thefts

Around 30 drain covers have been stolen across Shropshire over the past week – costing over £5,000 to replace.

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.”

If anyone notices anything suspicious or sees a missing drain cover, they should take down as many details as they can and report it to the council by calling 0345 678 9006, emailing customer.service@shropshire.gov.uk or reporting it online.

As well as asking people to watch out for anything suspicious, the council is using hinged covers to replace the missing ones making them harder to remove in future.

These thefts are taken very seriously and each one is reported to the Police.