A headteacher in Gloucestershire has described the “soul-destroying” moment he saw that lead from the roof of his school had been stolen for a second time in two years.
A group of people is believed to have scaled the roof of The British School in Wotton-under-Edge, Durham on Monday night or early Tuesday morning and torn off the metal.
The headmaster of the school, Abel Roche, says: “When I walked into the building it was covered with pieces of lead from when the thieves broke in, and there were large bits of lead that had to be picked up.
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The school caretaker noticed damage when he arrived at the building to open it up.
This source’s credit: The British School
Luckily, the disruption to the students had been minimal and lessons could continue as normal.
We’re lucky really that it wasn’t raining with water coming through into the building, considering how big of a risk it would have been to let the party go on if there was a storm warning.
The headteacher told ITV News that a similar incident happened about a year ago in their building, but the damage this time was far worse.
He said, “Today, everywhere you looked on the roof, the lead had been ripped up. The amount of lead that was missing meant that a vehicle must have been parked to transport it all away.”
The school will now consider bringing security cameras on the roof for monitoring purposes.
“CCTV in itself is a cost that I think will be thousands of pounds,” Mr Roche said.
Thousands of pounds we should be spending on books or resources for the children that we’re having to spend on keeping the school secure and safe, which is a sad state of affairs.
The school has said that it is now looking to purchase CCTV cameras.
The Gloucestershire Police are appealing for anyone who saw anything suspicious around Wortley Road to come forward.
In a statement from the Police, they said: “The force received a report that lead had been stolen from a property on Wortley Road, Wotton-Under-Edge last night between 6:30pm and 6:15am.”
Thieves have gained access to the roof and removed lead from a number of places.
“Anyone who has knowledge of this incident can contact Gloucestershire Constabulary through its website, quoting incident 57 of 26 April.”
