Metal thieves have struck again at Manchester Cathedral – ripping 10ft of guttering from the roof.
The church will now have to spend £2,000 fixing the damage.
Thieves took the guttering from the south side of the cathedral on Thursday night.
The theft was discovered yesterday by a verger who was checking the grounds.
The church will replace the lead with wrought-iron guttering, which is considered more difficult to steal. Over the last few months, the medieval landmark has been plagued by metal thefts – including the theft of a priceless silver cross.
Following the latest incident, the Dean of Manchester Cathedral Rogers Govender, 51, condemned the crime but said he would pray for the criminals.
He said: “I just think it’s pure vandalism which is totally unnecessary. We have had other downspouts which have been stolen in recent years and it’s costing us money which we would rather avoid spending.
“It causes insurance claims which we would rather not have to make and it causes damage to the building. It’s just criminality which is unacceptable anywhere in our society.
“Of course, this enables criminals to involve the middle dealers who want to acquire stolen lead like this. They are all in a criminal band which must be fully and totally condemned.”
He asked for the thieves to ‘own up’ to their crime, adding he would pray for them. he said: “We don’t condemn the criminal. We condemn their acts. They have damaged an important heritage building.”
Explaining why the lead was being replaced with wrought iron, he said: “We can’t afford to replace like for like. Lead is very expensive and for obvious reasons, if you replace with lead the criminals will simply come back.
“We have taken this decision in consultation with our insurers. We hope they won’t steal wrought iron. We haven’t had any stolen yet and we hope and pray it remains that way.”
Last month a 2ft silver cross, made in 1957 and donated by the Mothers’ Union, was stolen. The thief broke through metal chains used to lift the altarpiece. The cathedral has since removed silverware from display and beefed up security.
In November, the cathedral fell victims to crooks who stole a 150-year-old lead drainpipe – causing damage worth £1,500.
john.scheerhout@men.co.uk
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These thieves must have so little chance of being caught and when they do, they get no real punishment.
You would expect that the city centre would have the most police patrols, due to the numbers of people passing through. When I'm in the city centre you only rarely see the police community wardens and I don't think they work in the night time.
But the police chiefs will spend months having cops(in name only), working inside nice safe offices, investigating violent demonstrators being arrested by frontline cops not wearing pink soft fluffy gloves? The country is going down the drain.
The Church of England is one of the richest organisations in the UK. The partial solution is to surely install 24/7 CCTV infra red in all churches and outside all churches. Also look at the possibilty of postcoding the metal or marking it a way it is worthless to thieves. Anyone buying it i.e a dishonest scrap dealer, bankrupt him and place him in prison for a minimum of 5 years. Remember rioters who stole as little as a pack of toothpaste are getting 3 years which I still think is too low so a scumbag scrap dealer getting 5 would send a strong message.
Why not just use plastic guttering, much cheaper and unlikely to be stolen?
Hundreds of CCTV around Manchester...What for ?
Oh Yes....thats to nab motorists in bus lanes....easy targets you see.
How many cameras have GMP & the city council got surrounding this, one of Manchester's biggest buildings? How much of our tax paid for those cameras?
How have the images of the thieves, which almost certainly have been filmed, not been passed to the papers within 24 hours of the crime being reported? This is like the cyclist run over just the other day, on one of the busiest road corridors in Manchester - GMP still haven't bothered to issue any photographs.
GMP and Manchester City Council are really not fit for purpose.
pity they don't fall off. no respect for anything or anyone.
The sooner these properties get their metal fittings wired up to the National Grid the better!!
Then we`ll find out who the `bright spark` is, doing all the thieving.
Go into a bank and steal £2,000 then the police are there within minutes and the thiefs are looking at 10 years in jail after they've been indentified on Crimewatch.
Steal £2,000 from a church and it's just filed away in GMP's offices.
Once again our Cathedral has been vandalised.
Sadly the government recently shot down a bill by Haslingdon and Hyndburn MP Graham Jones which would have tightened up on the trade in stolen metals- reportedly saying that it would bring forward its own bill- but the accusation was that it was simply pique at not wanting a Labour member to get the credit for a law requiring more traceability of payments.
The proposals had the backing not only of Ecclesiastical Insurance but also the NFU, energy and rail companies,but also local authorities that have to pick up the tab for stolen drain covers. However it was shot down to the glee (and at the request?) of the British Metals Recycling Association who think it is "unwise" to demand payment by traceable means and prefer a culture of greasy used notes and no questions asked.
So next time the lead is nicked and a building is ruined, the cables are nicked and the train is held up, or a war memorial is vandalised, perhaps the government will be reminded that action could have already been taken, but they listened to the vested interests of those who have not stopped this crimewave from which they profit.
Shame on them!
Perhaps it's time for the CofE to start employing security guards. I know they would rather not spend money, but guards would help to deter thieves by providing a visible presence. They probably wouldn't stop the thefts completely, but there would be a significant drop. As another commenter has said, the CofE is one of the richest organisations in the country. The cost would not bankrupt them. They might even see lower insurance premiums if they employed security guards. Ultimately, they'd end up saving money.