Churches are in the grip of a crisis with roofs being stripped for their valuable lead tiles.
Ecclesiastical -Insurance, which provides cover for 95 percent of all Anglican churches in the UK, received 2,000 claims relating to lead theft in 2007, at a cost of over £6m. In 2005 there were just 80 claims costing £300,000.
Some churches have even seen repeated thefts, often sending insurance claim costs above the annual £25,000 ceiling that Ecclesiastical will cover. As a result, parishes are forced to consider using cheaper materials on their roofs which are less desirable to thieves;
Chris Pitt, spokesman for Gloucester-based Ecclesiastical Insurance, said: “County claims for Gloucestershire alone are £60,000 this year relating to lead theft. It is believed that the rising cost of lead and other metals, combined with the increased demands for these metals from countries like China and India is behind the current spate of thefts,”
The problem is not just confined to churches. Businesses and residential homes are also at risk. In recent months aluminium road signs have also been stolen from roads. Gloucestershire police have had 354 instances of metal theft reported to them between the 2006/2007 financial year.
Paul Francis, Gloucestershire crime prevention officer, said: “Thefts have increased since metal prices have gone up. Any sort of metal is valuable. Lead has doubled in scrap value and the return is significant. “We’ve had a lot of success and have recovered a lot of lead and arrested people. We are upping patrols at key times.”
The British Metals Recycling Association is also joining forces with the police to try to stamp out the problem.
Lindsay Millington, director general of BMRA, said: “We want to stop stolen metals entering the legitimate trade.”
She said the sites of her 300 members are also targeted by thieves. There are encouraging signs that members of the public and the diocese are waking up to the problem of metal theft. “We are seeing a lot of good practice now,” said Francis. “We are getting calls into our centre when the public get suspicious.”
Jamie Eykyn, chairman of Gloucestershire Crime stoppers, said a campaign to raise awareness was being considered as a result of the number of thefts, “We are keen to do something to promote the use of telephone numbers where people can leave information about any thefts anonymously” Police plans could include a Church Watch scheme, in a similar vein to Neighbourhood Watch with people looking out for their local church. Other ideas include SmartWater, a solution containing a DNA-style forensic code, which essentially gives each piece of metal its own fingerprint. Items marked with SmartWater can be traced to their owner and criminals can be linked with the crime scene.
Ecclesiastical Insurance is providing SmartWater for each of the 16,500 churches it insures and spokesman Chris Pitt said awareness of the product is so high amongst the criminal fraternity it is a successful deterrent. “The message is loud and clear to thieves that churches are well protected so think twice about targeting them.
“We are not going to sit back and see our national heritage torn away from us.’
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