8:50am Wednesday 17th March 2010
By Emily Roberts
CHILDREN had to leave their classroom after thieves stole lead from their school roof, causing water to leak through the ceiling.
When staff arrived at Manor Field Infant School in Haydn Road, Brighton Hill, Basingstoke, they could hear water dripping in one of the classrooms, and immediately knew something was wrong.
It emerged that thieves had climbed on to the roof and ripped off the tiles to take valuable lead from underneath, leaving holes in the ceiling of one of the classrooms.
Head teacher Jan Pywell said: “In one classroom, the tiles had become saturated with water because of all the heavy rain we had over that weekend and it was coming through. We couldn’t use the classroom. Fortunately, none of the children’s books were damaged and they were back in the classroom a couple of days later because we put some tarpaulin up to stop the water coming through.”
PC Jindy Sokhi, of the Brighton Hill Safer Neighbourhoods Team, said lead theft has become a problem in the area.
He added: “I was very aggrieved to hear that the school had suffered a theft of lead from its roof. Unfortunately, there have been a number of similar thefts in the local area. Lead theft is not simple and it would take time and effort to achieve.
“Based on this, I would like to appeal to anyone who has any information to contact us so we can bring the offenders to justice.”
Anyone with information about the theft, that happened on the weekend of February 19 to 21, should call PC Sokhi at Basingstoke police station on 101 or the Crimestoppers hotline on 0800 555 111.
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