The ‘Grate’ Colne Scrap Metal Theft Hunt

Residents in Colne’s Waterside area have been urged to look out for scrap metal thieves stealing grates.

An investigation has been ordered into a number of thefts of grid covers, after reports that one woman suffered an ankle injury after fallling into a hole left by a missing grate.

And neighbours are being urged to watch for suspicious activity along the area’s sloping terrace streets.

Talks are also to be undertaken with Lancashire County Council, as the highway authority, over possible replacements.

Dorothy Lord, a Waterside councillor, raised the issue at a Colne area committee earlier this year.

Grates had been going missing from areas off Albert Road and Burnley Road.

Residents told councillors they had been taken from Dent Street, Gill Street, and Francis Street.

The question of funding replacement grates, in the current economic climate, may present an obstacle, though.

Pendle’s engineering and special projects manager Peter Atkinson, in an executive report, said: “If this council was to consider funding such work then the estimated cost of replacing a missing gully grid with a suitable metal one was £175, “And to replace with a plastic alternative would be £150.

“There would be a potential problem with the plastics ones as it was likely that they would not fit all of the many types of existing frames.”

Borough police and the multi-agency problem solving team, which involves a number of public sector bodies, have been alerted over the grates issue.

And quotes are being obtained from an environ-mental firm over the definitive cost of plastic grates.

Council chiefs also intend to launch an awareness campaign to encourage residents to report grate thefts and any suspicious activity surrounding them.

Acknowledgement: The Lancashire Telegraph, 12th November 2010