Farms hit by growth in metal thefts

The CLA in Yorkshire this week highlighted a raid in which more than £2,000 worth of metal items, including troughs, sheep hurdles and gates, were stolen from Glovershaw Farm at Eldwick near Bingley during one night near the end of October.

Farmers Louise and John Hobson, who run sheep and cattle over about 500 acres, have since painted their gates pink and installed an alarm system which gets them up regularly in the middle of the night – and they do not think the alarms are false ones.

The thieves started to dismantle their cattle-handling system but must have been disturbed, said Mrs Hobson. She said neighbours at Cullingworth had lost £6,000 worth of gear including half their cattle race, bale spikes “and every single tool they had”. Mrs Hobson said: “The CLA were telling us about tractors being stolen and I got in touch because I wanted them to know it is not only the big stuff which is being stolen now. We used to think galvanised gates were not worth anybody’s effort to steal.

“We lost things like power take-off shafts, for driving tools from a tractor. Their scrap value would be nominal but they cost up to £1,000 each to replace.”

A spokesman for NFU Mutual said: “It’s happening everywhere. We are encouraging clients to note the registration numbers of suspicious vehicles and mark their property in any way they can. We are also supporting the campaign for a review of the regulation of the trade in scrap metal.”

NFU president Peter Kendall took the same message to a seminar on rural crime organised by the Association of Chief Police Officers at Kettering on Thursday.

He said: “It is not just the metal which is stolen which is the problem. If it’s a metal gate, livestock get out. If copper cabling has been targeted, entire areas lose their broadband access.”

Mr Kendall added: “The fact this conference is being held at all is an important step forward, because it signals that the police are prepared to listen.

“Rural crime and, just as important, the fear of rural crime, is like a nagging, chronic pain, which every so often erupts into spasms of real agony.”