Copper gang strips church. . . of its felt (From The Northern Echo)

Metal thieves target church roof in Middlesbrough

4:23pm Tuesday 7th February 2012 in Middlesbrough News

METAL thieves have torn strips off the roof of a church leaving it exposed to the elements.

They targeted St Agnes Church, off Boughton Avenue, Easterside, Middlesbrough, and pulled huge swathes of the copper-covered felt from the steep-sloped roof.

Church warden Dennis Ford said the theft will cost thousands of pounds to repair and could have been much worse if emergency repairs were not carried out before the snow fell at the weekend.

He said: "The panels could only have been pulled off because of the theft. Someone has pulled huge strips off the roof thinking it was all copper when it is really copper covered felt.

"One side of the church was stripped down to the wood, however, we were able to get a builder out on Saturday to do some emergency repairs and luckily he got finished just before it started to snow. If we hadn't got the roof sealed, there could have been a lot of damage caused to the church by the melting snow.

"The value of the copper felt will be negligible to the thief, but it will cost of thousands of pounds to repair properly, and if we are looking a complete new roof the bill will be between £100,000 and £180,000, which would be far too much for us to raise."

Anyone wanting to support the church raise funds for the roof repairs is asked to call Mr Ford on 01642-312818.

The raid happened sometime between Sunday, January 29 and last Thursday.

Anyone with information, or who may have witnessed and suspicious activity in the area around the time of the attack, is asked to contact PC Jack Chan, at Coulby Newham police station, on 01642-303126. Alternatively, they can contact Crimestoppers on 0800-555-111.