13th September 2011

A few months ago relatives of those commemorated with benches on the seafront were upset when anti-social thieves stole the metal plaques of remembrance. Hardly a week goes by without a media story of lead being stripped from a church roof or electricity supplies are interrupted by cable theft. And as a regular traveller by train I can say that delays caused by signal failures resulting from copper theft are frustrating to say the least. We as travellers, electricity customers and citizens are paying a high price for metal theft.

The rise in metal theft is linked to the price of copper and commodity prices are at an historic high.  Tackling metal theft cannot be left to education and media campaigns like Crime Watch. It requires changes to the law. The Home Office already has them on the shelf because we drew them up before the General Election got in the way.

Scrap metal dealers need to be licensed and not just registered. The licensing system can be paid for from a licence fee. The police need greater powers to enter and close yards and if someone has gained from criminality their assets should be seized. But above all the scrap metal trade should become cashless. We cannot afford a system which sees someone turn up with a wagon, gets paid in cash and no questions asked.

There are many businesses trading legally and properly and they would benefit from making the industry legitimate.

So come on Ministers - get on with the job! Make our communities safer, our electricity supplies more secure and our journeys without interruption.