Theft of manhole and drain covers from Lincolnshire’s roads

People are being urged to report missing covers on roads or paths after reports of an increase in thefts.

While such thefts are not overly common, Lincolnshire County Council maintains it remains an issue, particularly on back roads.

Richard Davies (Con - Grantham West), executive member for highways, has asked anyone who spots missing covers to report it to the council directly or via Fixmystreet.com.

"Taking any sort of ironworks from a road or path is theft, but the worst part of it is the immediate problem of a big hole for road users or pedestrians to have to navigate," he said.

"Thankfully, this sort of thing isn't that common, but it does happen, and I would ask anyone who comes across any sort of cover missing in either the road or path to please let us know as quickly as possible.

"Ideally, that would be via Fix My Street or to us directly. This sort of theft usually happens from quieter, back roads for the obvious reasons so any information or notifications from the public is very useful and we're grateful for it."

The call comes after concerns were raised by one user in a Skegness Facebook group over the weekend. She claimed to have reported an open drain on Fix My Street, only for the council to reply that it had been repaired by placing an orange cone over the top.

The council acknowledged it was a mistake by one of their crews when responding to the report. Multiple county councillors responded to the post, with one saying the drain would have been left like that while awaiting the replacement part.

Councillor Wendy Bowkett (COn - Waintfleet), executive member for adult care and public health, also responded to the post, writing: "Unfortunately, there seems to be an increase in stealing drain covers again. That is the delay, there have been so many again recently."

The council does not have any statistics on the thefts but noted that there have been times in the past when many covers went missing at once.