Lincolnshire Council Urges Public Reporting Amid Rise in Drain Cover Thefts

A councillor has indicated a rise in drain cover thefts across Lincolnshire. The county council has urged the public to report any missing covers through its official website. Councillor Wendy Bowkett stated, “Unfortunately, there seems to be an increase in stealing drain covers again.” She attributed delays in repairs to the high number of recent incidents, noting, “there have been so many again recently.” This appeal follows concerns voiced by an individual in a Skegness social media group. The user reported an open drain and subsequently received a council response indicating the issue had been resolved by placing an orange cone over it. The council later confirmed this action was an error made by one of its crews during the response. Several county councillors addressed the Facebook post, with one explaining that the drain would have been left in that state while awaiting the necessary replacement part. The Local Democracy Reporting Service reported that while the council does not possess specific statistics on these thefts, it has observed previous periods where numerous covers disappeared concurrently. Councillor Richard Davies, the executive member for highways, commented, “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 continued, “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.”